Hong Kong International Film Festival Society and Consulate General of the Czech Republic has organized a Film Festival "Czech New Wave", which was held from 3rd to 22nd October 2006. Together 12 Czech masterpiece from 60s were screened at HK Film Archive and UA Langham Place.

Since the days of silents, Czech cinema has enjoyed a rich and varied tradition. Despite the blows to artistic freedom inflicted by repressive regimes, Czech rose against the social realist party line in the 1950s. By the 1960s, carried by the momentum of the French Nouvelle Vague and German New Cinema, Czech Directors dazzled the world with masterpieces like Peter and Pavla, Daisies, Intimate Lighting and Closely Watched trains , and seized major prizes at A-list festivals.

The movement brought together three generations in a united front againts socio-political realities. Milos Forman took to the streets with his camera to record the daily life with wry humour. Vera Chytilova employed radical non-narrative film language to create open-ended texts. Others like Jan Kadar, Jiri Menzel, and Ivan Passer probed profound themes through unique cultural perspectives.

The Czech New Wave reached full blossom during the Prague Spring of 1968. Some 60 films were made within a span of five years. However, as 5,000 Soviet tanks rolled over the border, the cinematic movement was crushed, like broken petals, together with the romantic dreams of "Socialism with a human face". The rest, is history.

Novertheless, the Czech New Wace blazed a trail with the passion and courage to break out of the mode, becoming synonymous with a film vocabulary that intimated that "anything is possible." Since 1970s, these timeless works have had almost zero exposure in Hong Kong until now.

Mr. Wilfred Wong, Chairman of HKIFF and CG Rudolf Hykl