The novel, about an explosive force powerful enough to destroy the world, was written in 1922. The film was made in 1948, after World War II showed the fantasy was now just an engineering challenge.

A chemist collapses on a Prague street, feverish and delirious. In his delirium he has apparently told a classmate the formula for krakatite, the terrible explosive he has invented. The classmate has sold it.

We follow the chemist through a series of encounters - a weapons manufacturer, a princess whose face dissolves, a secret society of former world leaders who worship war and hail him as their saviour - as he tries to recover his formula while barely able to distinguish waking reality from fever dream.

KRAKATIT (1948) was shot at Barrandov Studios in Prague, during a short window of creative freedom between Nazi occupation and communist rule.

Krakatit was based on the novel by Karel Čapek - who also coined the word "robot" in his play RUR. Director Otakar Vávra made a loose second adaptation in 1980, titled Dark Sun, in the context of Cold War tensions.