A total of 24 films and several commentary tapes await visitors to the second annual festival of documentary films about the 20th century, which is entitled Unbreakable and Sacrificed. The show will take place from 10 to 14 November 2021 and is organised by the Museum of 20th Century Memory. On the first and last day of the festival, individual screenings will take place at the House of Pážat in Hradčany, while the middle three days will take place at the Bio Oko cinema in Prague's Holešovice.
In view of this year's 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, most of the films included in this year's edition are thematically related to the communist period. However, there will also be composite programmes relating to the Holocaust, archival examples of the return of Czechoslovak soldiers from both World Wars and the story of our legionnaires in Russia. The theme of communism will include not only filmic returns to the trials of the 1950s, both from the perspective of their instigators and victims, but also portraits of free-thinking and defiant people during normalisation, examples of propaganda in film, adventure stories of amateur underground films or reflections on the phenomenon of the so-called grey zone. Each screening includes follow-up discussions with filmmakers and historians, and special blocks for schools are prepared for weekday mornings.
"We are delighted that there is a great interest in screenings for schools. I consider the educational role of the Museum of the Memory of the XXth Century to be crucial, because if historical tragedies are not to be repeated, even in some altered form, we must focus on young people and children and teach them to know our past and understand the price of freedom and the critical moments when the nation loses it," said Hana Kordová Marvanová, Councillor for Legislation and Chair of the Board of the Museum of the Memory of the XXth Century.
The programme includes documentaries by Olga Sommerová, Pavel Štingl, Helena Třeštíková, Martin Vadas, Pavel Křemen, Arkadiusz Gołębiewski, Maciej Drygas, Robert Sedláček, Vladimír Merta, Kristina Vlachová and others. The audience can expect not only Czech films, but also films from Poland, Hungary and Belarus. As part of the accompanying activities, a concert by singer-songwriter Jiří Dědeček and an exhibition of funny and bitter prints by artist Pavel Vošický, together with the launch of his book So Where Are the Americans? The main guest of the festival this year is director Arkadiusz Gołębiewski, who will bring his film about a young anti-communist resistance fighter. The Polish Institute, the National Film Archive, the Military Historical Institute, the Bubny Memorial of Silence and Czech Television are cooperating in the festival programme, and the Platform of European Memory and Conscience is also a partner of the festival.
"We have also included films that are explicitly propagandistic, which are sometimes funny, sometimes really scary, because they offer an interesting opportunity for debate and reflection on the topic of influencing human attitudes and behaviour. Although virtually every power uses certain propaganda, the totalitarian regime was able to lie so monstrously and distort the reality of life in such a way that it remains a matter of reason to this day," said Jan Kalous, director of the Museum of the Memory of the 20th Century.
At the end of the festival, two prizes will be awarded: the Creator of Memory Award for a filmmaker and the Guardian of Memory Award for a personality who tries to preserve historical memory by various means.
"We have decided to name the Guardian of Memory Award after Jaroslav Janderová, a Prague councillor, but above all a great woman who co-founded the museum and was a great supporter of it. Unfortunately, she succumbed to coronavirus in January this year. The museum's board of trustees, of which she was a member, unanimously decided that the Guardian of Memory Award should bear her name," explained Petr Blažek, a member of the museum's board of trustees and chairman of the festival's programme board.
Festival passes and tickets for individual performances can be purchased at the Bio Oko cinema box office. A printed festival catalogue is also available free of charge with the purchased accreditation.In addition to a detailed programme, film annotations and filmmakers' medallions, viewers will also find interviews with directors and historians. The detailed programme and information on the films screened are available to the general public on the festival website www.nezlomniaobetovani.cz.
The International Festival of Documentary Films on the 20th Century Unbroken and Sacrificed was established in 2020 as a project of the Museum of Memory of the 20th Century. The organisers aim to create an international showcase of documentary films dedicated to the dramatic events and historical figures of the last century. It was inspired by the Polish film festival NNW (Niepokorni Niezłomni Wyklęci) in Gdynia. The first edition of the festival took place from 10 to 12 November 2020, due to the coronavirus epidemic and the ban on online-only mass events. It featured films by Czech, Slovak and Polish filmmakers. Recordings of the opening and closing ceremonies as well as all introductions and talks for each film are also available free of charge on the festival website.
Prague 5. 11. 2021