Trapped in a loveless marriage, Eva finds herself drawn toward a younger man whose presence awakens desires long dormant. Moments of intimacy unfold amid open landscapes and fleeting encounters, revealing a yearning for emotional and physical freedom. As passion disrupts the confines of her domestic life, desire becomes inseparable from the search for self-determination.
Ecstasy remains one of the most controversial European films of the early sound era, infamously provoking a scandal at the Second Venice Film Festival in 1934 for its frank depiction of female sexuality. Director Gustav Machaty employs a remarkably fluid visual style, using montage, movement, and landscape to convey psychological states that transcend dialogue. Beyond the notoriety that surrounded its release, the film stands as a pioneering exploration of female desire and subjectivity in early twentieth-century cinema. The restoration of this Czech version involved painstaking historical reconstruction to determine the definitive version from multiple language editions, ultimately earning the Best Restoration award at Venice Classics.

*Restored by Narodni filmovy archiv (National Film Archive in Prague), thanks to the support of Milada Kucerova and Eduard Kucera and the collaboration of the Film Servis Festival Karlovy Vary.