Original poster artwork · Great Cinema Master List
Spoiler-free premise
A teenage girl enters a dreamlike world of vampires, magic, and shifting identities as she approaches adulthood.
Read expanded premiseLonger, still spoiler-free+
On the week of her first menstruation, thirteen-year-old Valerie moves through a Moravian village of vampires, priests, magical earrings, duplicated relatives, and changing threats. Her grandmother Elsa and the pale Constable occupy unstable roles within the dream.
Why it belongs
In Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, Jireš makes puberty a luminous Gothic collage through lace, blood, flowers, folk music, shifting identities, and dream logic free of explanation.
Read expanded why it belongsThe fuller editorial case+
White dresses, berries, coffins, earrings, birds, water, religious costumes, and Luboš Fišer's score create a sensuous symbolic world—Jaroslava Schallerová's Valerie remains curious rather than simply victimized.
Major award wins
No verified wins in this six-institution crosswalk.
Awards are reference metadata only · zero points in 40/40/20
Good for
Film Club
Descriptive guidance derived from rating, genre, runtime, mood, and GCML scores.
Institutional reference ranks
Sight & Sound—IMDb Top 250—AFI 100—
Reference metadata only · not part of the 40/40/20 score
Great Cinema Master List scores
Greatness8.5
Engagement8.1
Ease7.2
Czech · Not Rated Narrative Feature Mood: Absorbing & Reflective
