Witchhammer

Kladivo na čarodějnice
Directed by	Otakar Vávra
Written by	Otakar Vávra Ester Krumbachová
Based on	Kladivo na čarodějnice by Václav Kaplický
Starring	Elo Romancik Vladimír Šmeral Soňa Valentová
Music by	Jirí Srnka
Cinematography	Josef Illík
Edited by	Antonín Zelenka
Production company	Filmové studio Barrandov
Release date	23 January 1970
Running time	103 minutes
Country	Czechoslovakia
Language	Czech

Witchhammer (Czech: Kladivo na čarodějnice) is a 1970 Czechoslovak drama film directed by Otakar Vávra and starring Elo Romančík. Based on the novel Kladivo na čarodějnice by Václav Kaplický, Witchhammer relates the story of the Northern Moravia witch trials of the 1670s, focusing on the priest Kryštof Lautner, played by Romančík, who falls victim to the witchhunt after opposing the trials. The film contains possible allegory about Communism in Czechoslovakia.

After its completion, the film was banned in Czechoslovakia. Despite this, it won awards at the Mar del Plata International Film Festival in 1970 and is considered one of Vávra's finest films.

In the 1670s in Moravia, an altar boy observes an old woman hiding the bread given out during communion. He alerts the priest, who confronts the old woman. She admits that she took the bread with the intent to give it to a cow to re-enable its milk production. The priest reports the incident to the owner of the local estate who, in turn, calls in an inquisitor, a judge specializing in witchcraft trials. Boblig von Edelstadt, the inquisitor, commences an ever-escalating series of trials, with Boblig revering the book Malleus Maleficarum as his guide. The tribunal uses thumbscrews in its interrogations, relying on its conventional use to justify it against torture accusations. However, a priest, Kryštof Lautner, criticizes Boblig for inhumane methods, and another clergy member senses many of the accused women burnt at the stake are in fact innocent, and openly prays for the trials to stop.