Flashback ’68: The Prague Spring and Czech Film

In light of the 30th anniversary of Charter 77 this month, it was a timely reminder of the events of January-August 1968 which became known as the Prague Spring. Part of the reason for this political upheaval was censorship by the Soviet controlled 'puppet government' in Czechoslovakia which gave rise to the underground movement in the arts, also finding an expression through emerging filmmakers.

The name originated from an annual music festival in the capital of the then Czechoslovakia which had actually begun in 1946 and was known as the Prague Spring International Music Festival. The Prague Spring was in two stages: The first stage was an attempt to liberalise domestic affairs in the Czechoslovak Communist Party with open-minded Slovak Alexander Dubcek replacing the Conservative Antonin Novotny as Party Leader. The second stage was the invasion of the open intervention of the Soviets to suppress this reform which led to the invasion of Soviet armed forces in August 1968 and the replacement of Dubcek by the more Conservative Gustav Husak eight months later.

The films that I feature here are linked to the spirit of Prague at this time and to the freedom of expression that these directors advocated and were to suffer for. The first film is All My Good Countrymen by Vojtech Jasny. Read about it here.