WAVES / Vlny (OmdtU) | 23 March

© Urban Sales

Cinema Ost – Eastern Europe in the mirror of film

State socialism prevails in the ČSSR and the totalitarian government is under the influence of the Kremlin in Moscow. Tomáš works at Czechoslovakian radio, where his editor-in-chief fights against censorship step by step. With the Prague Spring of 1968, change finally came and people were now allowed to subscribe to other news services, not just Soviet and domestic ones. But the Prague reforms went too far for Moscow. Tomáš is forced to co-operate with the state security service and fears for his young brother Pavel, who is distributing anti-Soviet leaflets on the street. When the Warsaw Pact troops invaded the ČSSR in August 1968, the new freedom came to an end. Outside, there were street battles and deaths. However, the increasingly politicised Tomáš and his colleagues continue to broadcast from the underground and document events in several languages, both for the local population and for listeners abroad.

The film is particularly relevant against the backdrop of the current war in Ukraine. It visualises the national trauma of the invasion ordered by the Soviet Union in 1968.