As every year, the talent admissions exams are being held on the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. Across three different ateliers, the movie observes the background of a difficult task that stands in front of institution’s pedagogues: how to pick, from the legion of participants, the chosen ones that will be given the chance to form the tone of fine arts for years to come? How will the academics themselves hold up during the exams? And what shall all this tell us about the nature and meaning of art nowadays?

In his provocative mosaic of opinions from different sides of the political spectrum, Martin Kohout reflects on where the ideals of November 1989 and the former sense of community have disappeared to. He tries to understand the progressive fragmentation of Czech society through two recent events. Both the parliamentary elections in 2017 and the subsequent direct election of the president made it clear that there is no consensus in the country today on even the most basic concepts such as “freedom” or “democracy”. Sources of concern, ideas about the country’s future direction, and the national myths on which cultural and political figures and disaffected voters rely all vary.

Supported by / The Czech Film Fund

Road movie following 20 colossal paintings of Alfons Mucha’s Slav Epic on their way from the Czech Republic to Japan and into the depth of our own history.

Supported by / City of Prague

The Fall of Consent Communism focuses on the rise of a new system under the communist rule after 1968 and the circumstances of its fall in the late 1980s. It examines the issue through testimonies of the representatives of normalization political elites. The movie exposes their self-deception, lust for power, mutual disagreements, disputes and behind-the-scene activities which resulted in the events of November 1989.

It may seem that the fall of the communist regime has been discussed in great detail many times over. However, that is a rather biased perspective. The prevailing public opinion is that the regime, established after the invasion of soviet armies in 1968, fell apart owing to changes in the USSR after Mikhail Gorbachev rose to power. There has been little mention of social contract and agreement (or rather coercion) between party elites and the public, which complemented each other, and which served to provide a certain validity to the peace solution generally preferred to violence. Jan Rousek’s motion picture will be shot as a study of the mechanisms behind historical events and their orchestrators as they truly unraveled. What does great power look like under scrutiny through the optics of the directly involved parties?

KINDLING is a collection of four short experimental film poems, which elaborate on the bond between inner and outer scenery. The individual movies carry their authors’ signatures; however, they are being produced in creative collaboration, which instils unifying characteristics upon them. The goal of the authors is to study the limits and permeability of the film (visual) and musical (auditory) composition. Rhythm and movement are more important to individual authors than the narration itself. The storyline, if present at all, gleams and flashes through to promote the observers’ associations and employ their imagionation rather than tell a story in a linear fashion. Authors’ aim is to introduce KINDLING in two ways. The first one is a classical short film setup and the second one will be a concert format, with live musical accompaniment.