27-02-2011

Arnost Lustig Dead at 84

By FNE Staff
    Arnost Lustig died of cancer on 26 February 2011 at age 84. Lustig, winner of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Lifetime Achievement Award, wrote screenplays for several Czech films before escaping Prague in 1989.

    His film credits include Dita Saxova, directed by Antonin Moskalyk, A Prayer for Katerina Hororvitzovou, co-directed by Lustig and Moskalyk, and Diamonds of the Night, directed by Jan Nemec.

    Diamonds of the Night, the story of two young boys that escape from a transport train taking them between concentration camps, was an echo of Lustig's own experience. As a young Jewish prisoner, Lustig escaped from a train en route to Dachau.

    Lustig escaped from Prague in 1968, returning after the fall of Communism. He most recently appeared in the 2009 film You Kiss Like God.