IV. year of the Unbreakable and Sacrificed Festival
31 October - 3 November 2023 / Prague / Atlas Cinema
The main theme, armed resistance against communism, was chosen on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the anabasis of part of the Mašín brothers' group on their way to West Berlin and the upcoming premiere of the new film The Brothers. The films at the festival will therefore focus on the anti-communist resistance, not only in the former Czechoslovakia, but also in other countries of the former Soviet bloc. The programme we are preparing will include mostly documentaries, but also several feature films from Czechoslovakia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Lithuania, Ukraine and Germany. The festival will also include film school screenings, student workshops and a student film competition on the 20th century. We have also prepared worksheets for project lessons for schools. There will also be an accompanying programme (talks and an expert seminar on museum films), which will take place before the festival itself.
The festival is organized by the Museum of the Memory of the 20th Century with the financial support of the Capital City of Prague. Prague, the Czech-Polish Forum and the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes in cooperation with a number of partners. The main media partner is Czech Television. The auspices of the 4th edition of the festival were taken over by the Minister of Defence of the Czech Republic Jana Černochová.
Three directors have returned to perhaps the most dramatic Czechoslovak event of the Cold War: Martin Vadas with his forthcoming documentary The Mašín Way, writer Jan Novák, who is the author of the award-winning novel So Far So Good, has made a documentary called Escape to Berlin, and a feature film by director Tomáš Mašín called Brothers will be released in October . In addition to these films, we are working to bring you such films as. The Lithuanian film I Kiss You, Juozas, which reminds us that the war in Lithuania in 1945 was definitely not over; the German feature film Close Range Shooting presents a portrait of the last executed East German agent; the Polish films Štvanice and Zapora thematise the partisan struggle of the underground Polish army against the communist apparatus; and The Battle of Wrocław goes back to the 1980s, when General Jaruzelski declared a state of emergency in Poland. The Ukrainian film Zhivaya uses the story of a young woman to show the dramatic fate of the rebel Ukrainian army that fought against Soviet special forces in the 1950s; Hungary's Anatomy of the 1956 Revolution analyses the most massive but also the bloodiest revolt in the Eastern Bloc; and brings from Slovakia the documentary Velvet Terrorists. In addition, the programme includes a number of films by renowned Czech directors such as Olga Sommerová, Pavel Křemen, Helena Třeštíková, Kristina Vlachová, Pavel Štingl; we will also present a newly completed documentary essay by Jan Gogola and Matěj Hrudička on the Uherské Hradiště prison, Prison of History, with the participation of the authors.
Two main honorary prizes are awarded at the festival: The Creator of Memory and the Jaroslava Jander Award The Guardian of Memory; and the award for the best student film about the 20th century, The Future of Memory. A recording of the closing ceremony with the award ceremony can be viewed here:
The attendees were greeted at the beginning by the Deputy Mayor of the Capital City of Prague. Jiří Pospíšil, Mayor of Prague, welcomed the guests. The Future of Memory Award was presented to the young director Petr Januschka for his student film The Island of Freedom by Jitka Seitlová, Vice-Chair of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, together with the chairman of the jury Jiří Voráč. Two honorary awards were given to Denisa Parobeková's uStopia and Magdalena Kochová's Schránky Marie.The diplomas were presented to the representatives of the film crews by Ladislav Kudrna, director of the ÚSTR, and Laura Gubalová, member of the jury. The Jaroslava Jander Award to the Guardian of Memory was announced by Senator Hana Kordová Marvanová, and received from Robert Jandera by Petr Blažek instead of the ill Zdeňka Mašínová. The Creator of Memory award was presented to documentary filmmaker Pavel Štingl by Jan Wolf, Chairman of the Cultural Committee of the Capital City of Prague. Jan Kalous, Director of the Twentieth Century Memorial Museum, delivered the laudatio. The evening was moderated by Barbora Kroužková.
The festival is under the auspices of the Minister of Defence Jana Černochová. Partners of this year's festival include the Polish Institute in Prague, the National Film Archive, the Military Historical Institute, the Smíchov Secondary Industrial School and Gymnasium, the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, the European Platform of Memory and Conscience, the Slovak Institute Prague, the Goethe-Institut Czech Republic, the Hungarian Institute in Prague, the Embassy of Lithuania in the Czech Republic and other institutions. A separate catalogue with an overview of the films and interviews with historians and directors was published for the festival. A new website has also been launched atwww.nezlomniaobetovani.cz. The festival is financially supported by the Capital City of Lithuania. Prague, ÚSTR and the Czech-Polish Forum.
We look forward to seeing you at the festival!
Festival programme
Accompanying programme of the festival
Here you can watch a recording of one of the accompanying programmes of the festival - the seminar Film as a Museum Medium, which took place on 17 October 2023 in cooperation with the Faculty of Education of Charles University. Lecturers: Andrzej Jerie, Aleš Kapsa, Petr Koura and Petr Blažek. Jan Samohýl moderated.
School film screenings