Krútňava

About the show

The original version is framed as a wager between a Poet and his Double over whether conscience can overcome human nature. After Jan Štelina is found murdered, his father accuses Katrena, who marries Ondrej against her will. A year later, Ondrej drinks and beats her; she confesses that Jan was her true love. Ondrej sees Jan’s ghost in the woods and resists the Double’s urging to conceal the crime. At Easter he confesses, and Katrena says the child is his. Old Štelina reconciles himself to helping raise the child. The communist-era revisions change Ondrej’s confession and the child’s paternity and fate.