Czechoslovakia: Portrait of a Tragedy

Forman vs. Forman

July 2019 •Czech

A moving account, in his own words, of the personal life and work of the brilliant Czech filmmaker Miloš Forman (1932-2018): his tragic childhood, his major contribution to the cultural movement known as the Czech New Wave, his exile in Paris, his troubled days in New York, his rise to stardom in Hollywood; a complete existence in the service of cinema.

Confusion

December 1969 •Czech

Showing his own original footage of Prague Spring, director Evald Schorm describes the atmosphere these days in 1968.

All Men Become Brothers

September 2023 •Slovak

A film about the phenomenon of Alexander Dubček, a Czechoslovak politician, one of the most prominent personalities of the Prague Spring of 1968, author of the concept of “socialism with a human face”.

Na tý louce zelený

January 1968 •Czech

68

March 2008 •French

From Washington to Saigon, Rome to Mexico, Paris to Prague, a wave of protests shook the world. 68 looks back at the looks back at the Vietnam War, the Prague Spring and the Soviet Invasion, the Paris riots, Dubcek, Che Guevara, De Gaulle, Cohn-Bendrik and more. A dive into the chaos of a turbulent year, featuring fantastic colour footage and the music of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrisson and Bob Dylan.

Elective Affinities

November 1968 •Czech

Documentary showing the Czechoslovakian political landscape in March 1968, when president Antonin Novotny, a hardline Stalinist, stepped down and moderate communist Ludvik Svoboda was elected. Five months later, in August 68, the Prague Spring would end with the military intervention of the Warsaw Pact.

Reconstruction of Occupation

August 2021 •Czech

Documentary filmmaker Jan Sikl came across several hours of footage showing the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in private film archives. 53 years later, historical memory awakens from a long slumber with this reconstruction of the occupation, a cinematic adventure of a truly archeological nature.

Prague Spring 1968 - Summer in Sofia

January 2008 •Bulgarian

A film about the contrasts between Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria in 1968. A film that reveals the mechanisms of censorship and propaganda during communism. A film about how information about events in Czechoslovakia was distorted in Bulgaria.

My Unknown Soldier

August 2018 •Czech

How does it feel like to become an occupier without your own intentions? With known but also never published archival materials from the whole Europe and Russia we tell a family story of the director Anna Kryvenko about how the big politics is destroying the lives of ordinary people. Just couple of years ago the director found a family secret of her grand-uncle who came to occupy Czechoslovakia in 1968 as a Soviet soldier. When searching for grand-uncle's story the author touches themes like fragmentation of personal and national memory, inherited guilt, interpretation of history, media manipulation, relationship towards nowadays Russia, but also relationship of Czechs and Slovaks towards foreigners - themes very actual in our times.

Oratorio for Prague

September 1968 •English

Filmmaker Jan Nemec and his crew risked their lives to create this historic documentary account of the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. The award-winning work is the only filmed record of the invasion. Oratorio for Prague began as a study of the liberalization of Czechoslovakia and then continued when the Russian forces moved in. The gripping footage was broadcast by television, providing the first report of the event. In addition to the news footage, the film features never-before-viewed scenes taken prior to the invasion that crushed Prague's anti-Communist movement.

Deckname Holec

July 2016 •German

Young director Honza David films the Russian invasion in in Prague in August 1968. With Eva the love of his life he tries to get out of the country. He wants to bring the explosive material to Vienna, to the director of the Austrian Television Helmut Zilk. He knows Eva very well but the Czech Secret Service even better ...

That Trip We Took with Dad

June 2016 •German

Romania, 1968. Two very different brothers. Mihai is a secret police informant, Emil is a dedicated dissident. When they have the opportunity to have their ailing father’s eyes operated on in East Germany, the three set out on a moving odyssey.

Waves

August 2024 •Czech

In the heady days of the 1968 Prague Spring, a group of Czechoslovak Radio journalists risk not just their careers but their lives to distribute independent news amidst national and regional tumult. Orphaned brothers Tomáš and Pája are caught in the struggle for freedom. The elder, Tomáš, is a radio technician working at the station committed to defying the Communist Party’s censorship, overwhelming propaganda, and police harassment. When security forces pressure him to spy for them, Tomáš finds himself in a bind where he has to choose between betraying his colleagues or protecting Pája.

The Man Who Stood In the Way

May 2023 •Czech

A drama that tells the story of the physician and politician MUDr. František Kriegel, the hero of the Prague Spring of 1968, who was arrested and kidnapped to Moscow on the night of August 21st together with five leaders of the party and the state (Dubček, Černík, Smrkovský, Špaček and Šimon). He was the only Czechoslovak politician who managed to stand up to Brezhnev in Moscow captivity, even under the threat of liquidation, and not to sign the Moscow Protovol which meant agreeing to the occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968.

Invasion

August 1980 •English

Docu-drama surrounding the events leading to the Soviet Union's invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968.

Beloved

August 2011 •French

From Paris in the 1960s to London in the first decade of the third millennium, Madeleine and her daughter Véra flit from one amorous adventure to the next, living for the moment and taking all the opportunities that life offers. But not every love affair is without its consequences, its upsets and its disappointments. As time goes by and gnaws away at one’s deepest feelings, love becomes a harder game to play.

Za volantem nepřítel

October 1975 •Czech

1974 Czechoslovak drama film directed by Karel Steklý.

Ohnivé jaro

July 1995 •French

Gli angeli del potere

July 1990 •Italian

Worst to First

February 2022 •English

WORST TO FIRST is a feature-length documentary that portrays the against-all-odds inspirational story of the launch of the iconic and most successful radio station in history, New York City's Z100.