Closely Watched Trains (Czech: Oste sledovan vlaky, released in the United Kingdom as Closely Observed Trains) is a 1966 Czechoslovak film directed by Ji Menzel. The film is based on a story by Bohumil Hrabal. It is a coming-of-age story about a boy working at a train station in German-occupied Czechoslovakia during World War II. It was filmed in Barrandov Studios, Prague.
It is one of several films based on writings of the novelist and short story writer Bohumil Hrabal (1914-1997), and also with his close collaboration. Menzel and Hrabal are a rare example of how congenial artists of the same sensibility achieve the same effects in different genres.
