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Film: Václav Havel Prague Castle

(This article expired 29.08.2014.)

Film Václav Havel, Prague - Castle (Václav Havel, Praha - Hrad)       
Petr Jančárek, 2009, 57 minutes, in Czech with English subtitles   

The film unveils the earliest days of Václav Havel's presidency, as told by members of Havel's inner circle and the playwright himself, including the arrival of his team to Prague Castle in the wake of the turbulent 1989 elections and his historic speech to the U.S. Congress. Havel and his advisors' immediate goal was to lead the country to its first free elections as quickly as possible. Interviews with Havel, his advisors and staff, as well as former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and others, tell the story of a truly unique period in the history of the former Czechoslovakia and the complex personality of Havel, who suddenly went from being a dissident to becoming the head of a free democratic state. The film also chronicles his first trips to European countries, the USA and the Soviet Union, as well as the first visits of Pope John Paul II and the Dalai Lama to the former Czechoslovakia. Discover the character of Václav Havel as seen through the eyes of those around him. 

Awards: Vaclav Havel, Prague-Castle won the main prize of the jury at the festival Politics on Film in Washington in May 2010. 

About the director:  
Czech documentary director Petr Jančárek (born 1959) contributed to 70 educational broadcasts and directed a range of documentaries. He has served as a screenwriter, director, cameraman, photographer, and independent producer and is a member of the Association of Directors and Screenwriters. He has worked as an editor and director of the main center of journalism and documentary at Czech Television. Additionally, he helped cofound the non-profit organization People in Need and currently serves as one of their advisors. He participated in humanitarian missions to Sarajevo, Bosnia, Chechnya. As of 2003, Jančárek has cooperated with the office of Václav Havel as an author, director, and documentary cameraman. He captured Havel’s life on film with such films as Václav Havel Prague-Castle (Václav Havel, Praha-Hrad), Václav Havel, Prague-Castle II. (Václav Havel, Praha - Hrad II.), and HavelMovie. He has also shot films about Cuba, Israel and Palestine, the Holocaust, the Velvet Revolution, among others.

Additional information about the director is available at:   
http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/porady/10246607396-sluzby-v-nasich-sluzbach-plus/3150-petr-jancarek/ (Czech only)

Photographs for download: Courtesy of Petr Jančárek

Václav Havel and Bill Clinton

Vaclav Havel and Dalai Lama

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