Robert Sedláček

바르샤바 조약군의 체코슬로바키아 침략과 대중의 수동적인 행태에 대한 정치적 항의로 1969년 1월 16일, 프라하 바츨라프 광장에서 분신한 카렐대학교 역사학-정치경제학 학생인 얀 팔라흐에 관한 이야기이다. 이 영화는 역사적 사실을 바탕으로 침략에 대한 저항과 민주주의 투쟁을 국민에게 일깨우기 위해 자신의 삶을 희생한 한 대학생의 마지막 몇 달의 모습을 포착하려고 노력한다. 사랑하는 아들이자 헌신적인 친구이고 사려 깊은 학생이었던 그가 무엇 때문에 이렇게 과격한 행동을 취한 이유에 관해 생각하게 한다. 주인공은 여자친구인 헬렌나와의 관계, 1968년의 파란만장한 대학 생활, 어머니와의 삶과 소련과 프랑스의 자원 봉사와 같은 자신의 모습을 보여준다. 카메라는 영화 전반에서 얀의 얼굴에 초점을 맞추어 가까웠던 그 누구도 짐작하지 못한 그 결정의 순간을 포착하려고 한다. 20년이 지나 얀 팔라흐의 분신을 기리는 일명 얀 팔라흐 주간 동안 체코슬로바키아 국민들이 전체주의 정권에 맞서 시위를 진행했으며, 이로 인해 같은 해 11월 말에 공산주의 정권을 무너뜨리고 체코슬로바키아의 자유와 민주주의를 불러일으킨 벨벳혁명이 일어났다.

Libor, a former teacher, enjoys a well-paid position as a bank manager, living in a luxurious villa outside Prague. His business partners are taken into custody and the authorities have a few questions for him to answer. Rather than wait around, he decides to take off to Moravia with his wife and two children. In the process, he pretends that everything is normal, rediscovers the value of family life, meets up with a former colleague lost in provincial obscurity, and becomes the object of a manhunt. Libor is not a criminal type, merely someone who signs cheques and is drawn into a business world failing to recognise its own criminality (he doesn’t even flee the country).

Libor, a former teacher, enjoys a well-paid position as a bank manager, living in a luxurious villa outside Prague. His business partners are taken into custody and the authorities have a few questions for him to answer. Rather than wait around, he decides to take off to Moravia with his wife and two children. In the process, he pretends that everything is normal, rediscovers the value of family life, meets up with a former colleague lost in provincial obscurity, and becomes the object of a manhunt. Libor is not a criminal type, merely someone who signs cheques and is drawn into a business world failing to recognise its own criminality (he doesn’t even flee the country).

Libor, a former teacher, enjoys a well-paid position as a bank manager, living in a luxurious villa outside Prague. His business partners are taken into custody and the authorities have a few questions for him to answer. Rather than wait around, he decides to take off to Moravia with his wife and two children. In the process, he pretends that everything is normal, rediscovers the value of family life, meets up with a former colleague lost in provincial obscurity, and becomes the object of a manhunt. Libor is not a criminal type, merely someone who signs cheques and is drawn into a business world failing to recognise its own criminality (he doesn’t even flee the country).

Film crew on the road: Director (Jaroslav Plesl), his Producer (Simona Babcáková), and their Director of Photography (Jirí Vyorálek) and Sound Arist (Johana Svarcova). Starving artists who already have a number of films to their names, Czech Lion award-winning films, excellent reviews and have been screened at numerous festivals, but they don't have audiences. Their next collaborative effort - the Director's lifetime dream - is quickly becoming oblivion because he failed to win a grant, which means it won't be made. And so the frustrated Director and his colleagues await their chance among record-holders of curious disciplines such as crawling with a squash racket or collecting four-leaf clovers. How will the collision of these two worlds end? What will the Director's next film be about?

Film crew on the road: Director (Jaroslav Plesl), his Producer (Simona Babcáková), and their Director of Photography (Jirí Vyorálek) and Sound Arist (Johana Svarcova). Starving artists who already have a number of films to their names, Czech Lion award-winning films, excellent reviews and have been screened at numerous festivals, but they don't have audiences. Their next collaborative effort - the Director's lifetime dream - is quickly becoming oblivion because he failed to win a grant, which means it won't be made. And so the frustrated Director and his colleagues await their chance among record-holders of curious disciplines such as crawling with a squash racket or collecting four-leaf clovers. How will the collision of these two worlds end? What will the Director's next film be about?

Film crew on the road: Director (Jaroslav Plesl), his Producer (Simona Babcáková), and their Director of Photography (Jirí Vyorálek) and Sound Arist (Johana Svarcova). Starving artists who already have a number of films to their names, Czech Lion award-winning films, excellent reviews and have been screened at numerous festivals, but they don't have audiences. Their next collaborative effort - the Director's lifetime dream - is quickly becoming oblivion because he failed to win a grant, which means it won't be made. And so the frustrated Director and his colleagues await their chance among record-holders of curious disciplines such as crawling with a squash racket or collecting four-leaf clovers. How will the collision of these two worlds end? What will the Director's next film be about?