Central figure of the Czech New Wave. Jasny entered the acclaimed Prague film school (FAMU) in its inaugural year, worked in documentaries with early collaborator Karel Kachyna, and began turning out fiction features in the mid-1950s.

Jasny's first solo feature, "September Nights" (1957), is generally considered a seminal work of the New Wave, but it was his next film, "Desire" (1958), which propelled him into the international spotlight. "Desire" displayed a lyrical, poetic quality that found its greatest expression, three features later, in "Cassandra Cat" (1963).

An infectious mixture of