Citizen Havel

The film, Citizen Havel, shows with humor and empathy a timeless story of the politician whose fame has crossed the Czech borders a long time ago. The audience can note the ups and downs of the ex-president, sad moments of his life such as a death of his first wife Olga, critical health situation but also times of a big popularity, happiness and joy. Some might be interested to see his speeches or ‘jackets rehearsals’ the others will appreciate more his sense of humor or follow his intellectual processes. The documentary is not trying to be a sort of glorification of Havel, on the other hand, this is a president from flesh and blood who is in the extraordinary epoch of his life demonstrated in very unusual situations.

Director Petr Koutecký started to register the film in 1992, shortly before Havel became the first president of the independent Czech Republic and the film finishes on the last day of his office - 2.2.2003. Koutecký and his camera were close to Havel for the whole two presidential periods, during trips, visits, meetings etc. Thanks to their friendship, the director managed to register also the private moments of the famous politician, something that nobody else would have a chance to do: ‘We totally forgot to realize that somebody is registering us.’ remembers Vladimír Hanzel, longtime Havel’s secretary. ‘Probably no other politician ever let the film-makers so close,’ adds Hanzel.

After the tragical death of Koutovský the film was finished by his colleague Míra Janek and his wife in 2006 which had to undergo a difficult task to cut from seventy hours of the film material the most interesting moments and put them in one full-length picture that will have a premiere in January 2008 in the Czech cinemas. The international one is planned within the film festival Berlinale. Citizen Havel is not only a portrait of the world-known politician but also sometimes a tragicomic testimony of the first ten years of the Czech freedom.

Josef Lada - Painter of the Czech Christmas

In the Prague Municipal House will take place until the February 3rd 2008 the exhibition dedicated to the Czech painter and writer - Josef Lada, as this December we remember two important anniversaries of this artist: 120 years from his birth and 50 from his death.
The exhibition offers a representative sample of all areas of Lada’s work – from caricature, humoristic drawing, children’s books illustration, scenography, posters to free painter’s composition. We can find there some of his works which has not been published yet and that were considered lost even by the author himself.

The first of his drawings were published in 1904 in a magazine Máj (May) and two years after his first children book was produced as Lada was not only a painter but also an author of many stories for children that happened to be very popular for its originality and simplicity. He ‘gave a face’ to the main character of his writer-friend Hašek: a good soldier Švejk but what made him perhaps the most notable in the eyes of public were his charming winter illustrations of native village Hrusice that became with his unique visualization of the Holy Family, mangers with animals and carolers a symbol of traditional Czech Christmas.

Between the representatives of the Czech modernism we will hardly find a painter whose work has met with such a spontaneous admirations by different kinds of audience. His originality was appreciated even by Pablo Picasso but the biggest evidence of the vitality, authenticity and importance of Josef Lada’s work is the fact that there are constantly new re-editions his children’s books and his images are even today a requested motive of the Christmas cards and calendars. The world that Lada painted does not exist any more, and the major part never existed, as Lada created his own. He looked at things for the whole life with the children’s eyes and he had a gift to see in ordinary always something unique and miraculous.

Play that wrote the Pope

Contrary to Poland where the Wojtyla’s screenplays are shown quite frequently there will be for the first time in the Czech Republic on Wednesday, 19th of December featured a play that wrote the Pope! The Prague Theatre in Dlouha has prepared his play The jeweler’s shop in a form of scenic reading under a direction of Petr Lanta. According to Lanta it is not going to be any king of ‘theatre in chairs’. ‘I would like to create with limited resources the most of the theater magic’ adds the director.

The jeweler’s shop is a poetic, poesy and monolog drama which main theme is the relationships and love. ‘They are actually loud and sincere personal thoughts and self-examination that becomes in certain parts a drama.’ describes the play Lanta.
The main characters are three couples that represent at the same time two different generations. Other symbolic persons take parts in the play such as Adam, who is a guide and protectors of erratic souls, perhaps something like Wojtyla’s alter ego and then a jeweler who is weighing not only the wedding rings but also the human hearts.

Wojtyla wrote this play under a pseudonym Andrzej Jawien in 1960, when he still served as a bishop in Krakow. The way how he is describing the relationships is very realistic, it is not only a symbolic drama. It is a text of responsibility and criticism of the sixties that he wrote in the epoch of free love and a common sensation that everything was allowed. He realized a danger leading from an unlimited liberty causing a confusion of a man’s soul. Today’s destruction of values is just confirming Wojtyla’s prediction of this era is a bad heritage.

Rediscovery of Pilgrimage

The pilgrimage has a big tradition between the Czech and Moravian people even though these days a meaning of this word in the Czech language is more associated with roundabout attractions and refreshment kiosks. Our grandmothers would be surely willing to tell us what a traditional pilgrimage looked like and that making a certain effort and sacrifice was considered that time a indivisible part of every day’s life.

The members of Matice Svatohostýnská (Svaty Hostyn Trust), who take care of the most visited pilgrims’ place in the Czech Republic, would like to follow up on this tradition and help to rediscover the meaning of pilgrimage today. That is why they decided to create a pilgrimage path connecting the most important Christian traditions’ shrines the in the Czech Republic: Svaty Hostyn (historical Marian pilgrims’ place) and Velehrad (base of the evangelizations of Slavic nations, Cyril and Method). Organizers wanted to offer new alternatives also for the young generations so they came up with an idea to have a sort of educational path in which the pilgrims would not only admire the richness and the beauty of the south-east Moravian nature but learn during its 55 km divided into 22 stations about the most important culture-historical aspects and personalities of the area. However, what is making the path unique of its kind is its spiritual dimension as there will be at every station a panel placed also with a citation from the Holy Scripture and a short meditation.

Every pilgrim will receive a passport, a map with the route and a pilgrimage stick. Participants are invited to join official group pilgrimages or organize their own with a family, friends etc. They can make the trip longer or shorter, the accommodation for the less fit pilgrims will be provided.
The plan is to open the route officially on the 4th July 2008, on the feast of Saint Cyril and Method, at the occasion of organization of the Day of the People of Good Will in Velehrad.

'Abnormally Normal' Man

‘You said you don’t have anything to read why you don’t take this?’ were the words of my friend who passed on me a recently published book titled: Decide for a Risk. With not very high expectations I accepted from her this interview-structured life story of Petr Esterka. All I could associate with this name was a fact that he is a Czech bishop living currently in the United States.

The book completely captured all my attention already in the first chapter. My heart was beating fast while reading how 22 year-old Petr and his two friends were cutting through the electric wires of 5000 volts, barrier that was protecting the Czechoslovak border from the Austrian ‘capitalist enemies’. If the police guard spotted them they would be shot immediately or torn apart by the specially trained dogs…

Petr Esterka did not search for it but nevertheless his life has been one big adventure. Coming from a devoted Catholic family from the South Moravia, refused to accept the dictatorial regime of the communists and decided to leave the country in 1957. From the refugees’ camp in Austria he continued to Rome where he became a seminarian. After his priestly ordination in 1963 his path led to the United States where among the pastoral work he performed also as a university professor and a chaplain of the Air Force. In 1999 he became a bishop responsible for the Czech Catholic community living abroad.

Despite of the interview form of the book, Petr Esterka is not talking about himself, but about the world, people, his person usually stands on the side. He does not close his eyes in front of the problems; on the other hand he faces them. He seems very natural and surprisingly ‘normal’ in all his responses as he admits doubts and does not cover by a pose the reverence of his position. He does not have the tendency to polarize the world for the good and the bad, he does not condemn and he lives based on a motto: ‘hate sin – love sinner’ and he is very credible when he says it.

The book was published in the Czech language under the title:
Rozhodni se pro risk, Petr Esterka v rozhovoru s Alešem Palánem
Karmelitánské nakladatelství Kostelní Vydří, 2007