Called the "enfant terrible of the Czech New Wave," filmmaker Jan Nemec drew from Bresson, Faulkner, Hemingway, Resnais, and Buñuel to create the style of his 1960s films, a style he labeled "dreamy realism." Despite the dreaminess, the reality of Nemec's work was subversive enough in both its "incomprehensible" style and political substance to result in a 15-year exile from his country. Independent of Reality: Jan Nemec Retrospective at Northwest Film Forum draws from both Nemec's pre-exile period (1964's Diamonds of the Night, 1967's Martyrs of Love, 1966's Pearls of the Deep) and post-exile rebirth (2001's Late Night Talks with Mother, 2009's Ferrari Dino Girl). Rounding things out: Golden Sixties: Jan Nemec, a documentary portrait of the artist created for Czech television, here copresented with the Center for Czech Education and Culture.

Independent of Reality: Jan Nemec Retrospective runs Feb 21–26 at Northwest Film Forum. For full info, see nwfilmforum.org.