Anděl Páně film creators face court dispute over authorship

A legal dispute regarding the authorship of the popular Czech Christmas fairy tale film ‘Anděl Páně’ reached the Municipal Court in Prague. The conflict arose during the development of a stage musical based on the film.

Screenwriter Lucie Konášová sought a court ruling to establish her as the sole author of the film's script. However, director Jiří Strach contested this, asserting his creative contribution to the final version of the story. The dispute centered on whether the musical utilized film scenes and dialogue to an excessive degree.

In an unusual move, the judge conducted a scene-by-scene comparison of the film against both the literary script by Konášová and the technical script prepared by Strach. The defense argued that many specific jokes, dialogues, and visual ideas were not in the original text but were created during Strach's direction on set.