1989: From Letters Written Across the Iron Curtain documentary Czech Republic / debate with guest; 2019, 44 min. Directed by Karel Strachota
Petr Kořínek is 21 years old, comes from Pardubice, listens to underground bands, reads samizdat books, has problems at school because of his long hair. And he dreams of emigrating. It is the beginning of 1989 and there is no sign that he will see freedom in communist Czechoslovakia. "I can't imagine going on living in that police state where someone else always decides my life," he writes to his parents in a letter he drops in the mailbox moments before he boards a train to Paris on February 7, 1989.
After several harsh months in a refugee camp, he finally gets a passport, finds a job and meets Pavel Tigrid, the leading figure of the Czech exile, but he is still sad. He finds it hard to accept the idea that he may never see his parents and his friend Martin, with whom he writes regularly, again. At least remotely, they experience together the gradual disintegration of the Soviet bloc, the fall of the Berlin Wall and eventually the student demonstrations leading to the Velvet Revolution. And also the hopes and fears of an uncertain future. It is the letters that Petr sends to his loved ones that form the basis of Karel Strachota's film about the phenomenon of emigration. The combination of letters, archival footage and period photographs is enhanced by drawings, animations and, above all, a strong musical component.
The film will be followed by a debate with guest, the memoirist Milan Zapadl. The event is part of the project Month of Stories of Injustice of the NGO People in Need. It is organized by FK Zoom in cooperation with the Memory of the Nation North Bohemia and the Regional Scientific Library in Liberec.
Petr Kořínek is 21 years old, comes from Pardubice, listens to underground bands, reads samizdat books, has problems at school because of his long hair. And he dreams of emigrating. It is the beginning of 1989 and there is no sign that he will see freedom in communist Czechoslovakia. "I can't imagine going on living in that police state where someone else always decides my life," he writes to his parents in a letter he drops in the mailbox moments before he boards a train to Paris on February 7, 1989.
After several harsh months in a refugee camp, he finally gets a passport, finds a job and meets Pavel Tigrid, the leading figure of the Czech exile, but he is still sad. He finds it hard to accept the idea that he may never see his parents and his friend Martin, with whom he writes regularly, again. At least remotely, they experience together the gradual disintegration of the Soviet bloc, the fall of the Berlin Wall and eventually the student demonstrations leading to the Velvet Revolution. And also the hopes and fears of an uncertain future. It is the letters that Petr sends to his loved ones that form the basis of Karel Strachota's film about the phenomenon of emigration. The combination of letters, archival footage and period photographs is enhanced by drawings, animations and, above all, a strong musical component.
The film will be followed by a debate with guest, the memoirist Milan Zapadl. The event is part of the project Month of Stories of Injustice of the NGO People in Need. It is organized by FK Zoom in cooperation with the Memory of the Nation North Bohemia and the Regional Scientific Library in Liberec.
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Last update 01.11.24, 08:18 o 'clock
