Riders in the Sky

During the Second World War Czechoslovak pilots fled their country. Some of them reached England. There they served with No. 311 Squadron of the RAF. The film is about the crews of that squadron. A Wellington bomber is at the centre of it. Its crew is a mixed one. Three Czechoslovaks, two Englishmen and a Canadian. The Battle of Britain and the air war over northern Europe lie behind the story. The crew flies bombing missions. Every flight carries the chance of not coming back. The story comes from a 1964 novel by Filip Jánský. Jánský’s real name was Richard Husmann, and he had been an air gunner with the RAF himself. The film opened on 20 December 1968. Jiří Bednář, Jiří Hrzán and Jana Nováková appear in the ninety one minute film, a Czechoslovak production Jindřich Polák finished in 1968.