RECONSTRUCTION OF THE OCCUPATION

The director Jan Šikl has collected private film archives of different families. Recently, he has found 3.5 hours of professionally filmed material that captures the invasion of the Warsaw Pact armies to Czechoslovakia on August 21, 1968. Nobody has ever seen this footage. Jan Šikl begins to search who is captured in the footage and where it takes place.

The memories of specific events come back to life. From scattered fragments of memories of individual characters, the picture comes together and gives a more general testimony. A distinctive form of social memory comes into existence. It incarnates the picture of a historical event and its relation to the present.

A film about our ability to reflect the past and about a form of the memory itself.

FINISHED

Festivals: Karlovy Vary IFF, Trieste IFF, Krakow IFF, Watch the Docs FF, Beldocs, DokuBaku, Human Rights FF Albania, Beyond Borders – Best Historical Documentary Award, Imagineindia – Best Documentary Award

CZ/SK

Script, Director: Jan Šikl
DOP: Adam Oľha
Editor: Šimon Špidla
Script Advisor: Lucie Králová
Producer: Alice Tabery
Co-producer: Czech Television (Alena Müllerová, Petr Kubica), PubRes (Zuzana Mistríková), Pragafilm (Jan Šikl), RTVS (Ondrej Starinský)

The project was supported by the Czech Film Fund and Slovak Audiovisual Fund.

REVIEWS:
https://variety.com/2021/film/global/reconstruction-of-occupation-prague-spring-1235048237/
https://www.seznamzpravy.cz/clanek/ztracene-zabery-z-okupace-podivejte-se-na-unikatni-pohledy-na-srpen-68-172643
https://www.respekt.cz/kultura/vary3-a-pak-po-mne-vystrelil-rusky-tank-ale-koho-to-dnes-zajima
https://www.reflex.cz/clanek/festival-karlovy-vary/108673/rekonstrukce-okupace-jak-vnimame-dejinnou-roli-naroda-i-nas-samotnych.html
https://english.radio.cz/new-documentary-1968-invasion-czechoslovakia-premiers-karlovy-vary-8726558#player=on