British Czech and Slovak Association

A Castle in Bohemia, an Austro-Japanese Count, and the Future of Europe
2022-02-09 18:00 - 19:30 (Europe/London)
ZOOM lecture: Martyn Bond, a former foreign correspondent specialising in European affairs, will speak about Count Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, better known on the Continent than in Britain. Few anywhere know that the man whom Hitler damned in Mein Kampf as a ‘cosmopolitan bastard’ travelled on a Czechoslovak diplomatic passport for twenty years between the two world wars.
As a young intellectual politicised by the Great War, the Count sent President Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk one of his early political articles arguing for better understanding between Czech and German speakers in the new republic. In September he went to see him in Prague and explained to the President his bigger plan for a peaceful union of all the nations of Europe in Pan-Europa, a forerunner of today’s European Union.
The Count was an early pioneer of European unity and played an important role in the history of Central Europe but, given his and his family’s German-Bohemian background, is still underrated in the Czech Republic. His work in the movement for a united Europe deserves to be re-evaluated.

Booking via Eventbrite link below

The event is free but please consider making a donation at:
www.czechfriends.net/payments

A new history of Theresienstadt
2022-02-08 17:00 - 18:30
What was society like in the Nazi ghettos?
A SSEES Study of Central Europe Seminar with Dr Anna Hájková, University of Warwick, a free event see booking link below

Terezín, as it was known in Czech, or Theresienstadt, as it was known in German, was operated by the Nazis between November 1941 and May 1945 as a transit ghetto for Central and Western European Jews before their deportation for murder in the East. Today, Theresienstadt is best known for the Nazi propaganda of the International Red Cross visit, cultural life, and children. But these aspects explain little what defined the lives of its 140,000 inmates. The Last Ghetto offers both a modern history of this Central European ghetto and the first in-depth analytical history of a prison society during the Holocaust. In conversation with Professor Eric Gordy (SSEES UCL), the author will discuss how can we write a history of enforced society in the Holocaust. The discussion will also address the question of Jewish Councils and the place of Jewish and Holocaust history in wider Central European history.

Note: This event will be delivered in person on UCL campus. Should circumstances change, ticket holders will be notified in advance.

About the speaker:
Dr Anna Hájková is Associate Professor at the University of Warwick. Her first book, The Last Ghetto: An Everyday History of Theresienstadt, came out in 2020 with Oxford University Press to popular and academic acclaim. Her article “Sexual Barter in Times of Genocide“ was awarded the Catharine Stimpson Prize for Outstanding Feminist Scholarship in 2013. She is currently working on two projects: a study of transgressive sexuality in the Holocaust, for which she is writing a trade book on the Neuengamme guard Anneliese Kohlmann, and queer Holocaust history. Her work on queer history of the Holocaust has been published in Czech, German, British, US American, and Israeli newspapers, and was recognized with the Orfeo Iris Award in 2020. She recently guest edited a special issue of German History on “Holocaust, Sexuality, Stigma”. Additionally, she is working on a generational history of Communists in Central Europe.

Holocaust survivor parents
2022-01-26 19:00 - 20:00
Barnet Libraries presents: An online evening with Francis Morton discussing the story of his Holocaust survivor parents George and Renée.
Francis’s parents lived in Czechoslovakia before World War 2 but came to England as Jewish refugees. His mother came to England in 1938 on a domestic service visa to undertake housework and childcare for a family in Cambridge, while his father escaped from Czechoslovakia in 1940, illegally entering Palestine and then being interned on Mauritius by the British, before coming to the UK in 1942 as an RAF volunteer.
Francis uncovered their stories after finding some 500 letters written by family and friends during this period, and his talk also covers the fate of those family members unable to escape from occupied Europe.
to register use the Eventbrite link below

Christmas in Bohemia
2021-12-26 14:00 - 15:00
Using the words of the favourite 19th-century English carol “Good King Wenceslas”, Hannah French explores Czech music, food and traditions with Lady Milena Grenfell-Baines and Jarmila Karas.
The carol tells the story of the Bohemian king, Saint Wenceslaus I going on a journey and braving harsh winter weather to give alms to a poor peasant on the Feast of Saint Stephen. During the journey, his page is about to give up the struggle against the cold weather, but is enabled to continue by following his master’s footprints, step for step through the deep snow.
Saint Stephen’s Day – 26th December – celebrates the saint who is credited with being the first Christian martyr.

“Bring me flesh and bring me wine”

What is the traditional Bohemian Christmas fare? Hannah is joined by food-writer and philanthropist Lady Milena Grenfell-Baines MBE to unpack some of the yuletide traditions still practiced in the Czech Republic today.

“Ye, who now will bless the poor
Shall yourselves find blessing.”

As a child, Lady Milena, with the help of Sir Nicholas Winton, escaped Nazi-occupied Prague in 1939 on the last train to leave the city. That concept of deep selflessness and kindness is surely one Saint Wenceslas might have approved of!

Hannah’s other guest is singer and language coach Jarmila Karas, and together they will also explore some of the traditional Czech music associated with Christmas and pieces related to Saint Stephen by Bach and Zelenka.

The programme will be available online shortly after broadcast
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0012q8n

Illustration from a biscuit tin, 1913, V&A Museum

Reading Havel
2021-12-20 08:00 - 2022-01-31 23:30
The aim of this project is to bring closer the key texts of Czechoslovakia’s and the first president of the Czech Republic Václav Havel.
We approached prominent public figures who met Václav Havel and/or who are his supporters (whether in the Czech Republic or abroad) to read selected excerpts from his texts.
The invitation was accepted by Martha Issová, Pavel Fischer, Radka Denemarková, Tomáš Halík, Aneta Langerová, Patrik Hábl and Taťána Gregor Brzobohatá.
The videos will be made available every Monday starting on 20 December 2021 until 31 January 2022 on the link below.

Magdalena Kožená
2021-12-17 19:30 - 21:30 | Wigmore Hall, 36 Wigmore Street, London, W1U 2BP, United Kingdom
The Czech mezzo-soprano brings a characteristically varied programme, with songs from her homeland as well as the German, Russian and Hungarian traditions. Having previously championed the music of her compatriot Bohuslav Martinů, she includes a song collection (1942) written during his American exile that was also a favourite of exiled foreign minister and fine amateur pianist Jan Masaryk.
Tickets £50 £40 £30 £25 £16
Ticket bookings are subject to a £4 booking fee. This fee covers the whole booking and is not per ticket.
Programme
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Meine Liebe ist grün Op. 63 No. 5
Nachtigall Op. 97 No. 1
Verzagen Op. 72 No. 4
Anklänge Op. 7 No. 3
Das Mädchen spricht Op. 107 No. 3
Unbewegte laue Luft Op. 57 No. 8
Ach, wende diesen Blick Op. 57 No. 4
Vergebliches Ständchen Op. 84 No. 4
Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904)
Evening Songs Op. 3
When I was gazing
When God was in a happy mood
The soughing of the trees
I am that knight of fairy tale
I dreamt that you were dead
INTERVAL
Bohuslav Martinů (1890-1959)
New Chap-Book H288
Modest Musorgsky (1839-1881)
The Nursery
Béla Bartók (1881-1945)
Falun (Village Scenes) BB87a

BCSA Christmas social evening
2021-12-08 19:00 - 22:00 | Bohemia House, 74 West End Lane, London, NW6 2LX, United Kingdom
As the festive season approaches, we thought our last regular “get to know you” meeting this year should be special.
Join us to exchange your stories and experiences of Christmas, past and present, sample some traditional Christmas cookies and sing a few songs and carols.
Everybody with Czech or Slovak connections or interests is welcome
Food and drinks are available for purchase. It would help if we could all have our meal together at the same time.
We shall aim to eat at around 8pm so please try to arrive by 7.30pm.
If you are planning to attend, please send an email to bcsa@bcsa.co.uk so we can reserve the right room.
West Hampstead has three stations served by the Jubilee line, Overground and Thameslink.

The life and legacy of Alexander Dubček
2021-11-30 17:00 - 19:00
A roundtable discussion to commemorate the birth of Alexander Dubček (1921-1992) online via Zoom.
27 November 2021 marks one hundred years since the birth of Alexander Dubček, icon of Czechoslovakia’s political reform movements in 1968 and 1989 and one of the most important figures in twentieth-century Slovak politics.
SPEAKERS:
MUDr. Pavol Dubček is the son of Alexander Dubček – the most prominent figure in modern Slovak history and icon of the Prague Spring (1968). Pavol Dubček studied medicine at the Comenius University in Bratislava. During communism he was not allowed to practice as a doctor. Today he works as a traumatologist in Bratislava. He is the president of the Alexander Dubček Association and still cherishes the message and ideals of his father.
Dr Wojciech Janik is UCL SSEES Library’s Area Liaison Coordinator and Area Liaison Librarian for Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Eurasia. He is responsible for overseeing academic liaison and coordinates the work of the team of Area Liaison Librarians, providing support for teaching and research at the School.
Dr Celia Donert is a historian of Central Europe in the twentieth century at Cambridge University. Her research seeks to explore the history of socialism, nationalism, gender, and human rights in contemporary Europe from a transnational and global perspective.
Dr Thomas Lorman is a historian of Central Europe. Since 2010 he has taught at UCL’s School of Slavonic and East European Studies. He has published widely on Hungarian and Slovak history and also serves as editor of the journal Central Europe. His last two books are The Making of the Slovak People’s Party. Religion, Nationalism and the Culture War in Early 20th-Century Europe and A History of the Hungarian Constitution: Law, Government and Political Culture in Central Europe, which he co-edited with Ferenc Hörcher.
The event will be chaired by Dr Peter Zusi (UCL SSEES).
To register use Eventbrite link below.
The occasion is co-organised by the Study of Central Europe seminar series at UCL SSEES, the Slovak Embassy and the British Czech and Slovak Association.
Image credit: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic. Photographer: Vladimir Benko

Caught in the net
2021-11-29 18:00 - 22:30
Czech film screening at 21 Picturehouse Cinemas in Ashford, Brighton, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Exeter, Liverpool, Oxford, Southampton, York and in London – Brixton, Bromley, Clapham, Crouch End, East Dulwich, Finsbury Park, Greenwich, Hackney, Notting Hill Gate, Piccadilly Circus, West Norwood
For local times, venues and booking see link below
Three adult actresses posing as 12-year-old girls, three fake girls’ bedrooms, 10 days and 2,458 sexual predators. Tasked with creating fake social network profiles, the actresses chat or Skype with men of all ages who try to sweet-talk or browbeat them into taking off their clothes and sending them racy pictures. All conducted live on camera, the documentary delivers the eye-opening, gripping drama of the protagonists from casting and live chat accompanied by psychologists and others who monitor the interactions, to face-to-face meetings with predators (watched by security and six hidden cameras). A radical social experiment highlighting the extent of the sexual abuse of young people on the internet in which the hunters become the hunted. Essential viewing, not only for parents.
Barbora Chalupová, Vit Klusak, Czech Republic 2020, 100’
A Czech box-office phenomenon and the Grand Prize Winner at the One World International Human Rights Film Festival in Prague.
Part of Czech Centre Made in Prague UK Tour

Shadow country
2021-11-28 14:20 - 2021-12-08 22:45
Czech film screening at 9 Picturehouse Cinemas in Cambridge, Edinburgh, Exeter, Liverpool, Oxford, York and in London – Crouch End, Finsbury Park, Hackney.
For date, time and booking link, click on the location.
A powerful and striking portrayal of a close-knit village community on the Czech-Austrian border between the 1930s and the 1950s where everyone must choose their allegiances when faced with shifting territories and conflicting ideologies. Marie, a Czech, is married to Karel, an older German, and lives with quiet dignity and kindness a happy family life. Persuaded by Karel she changes her nationality to German, a decision they both regret when with the end of the war the village once again becomes Czech. Through the fates of individual villagers and their families Sláma, inspired by a real case of the execution of Germans, builds a tale of life-long neighbours who turn from allies to enemies.
Seen by the director as a celebration of female sensibility and sanity, this is an epic film based on an excellent script and filled with intimate intertwined stories, stunning cinematography and nuanced acting.
Bohdan Sláma, Czech Republic, Slovakia 2020, 135’, English subtitles
Cast: Magdalena Borová, Stanislav Majer, Pavel Nový, Barbora Poláková, Csongor Kassai
Winner of the main Czech Film Critics Award and of seven Czech National Film Awards.
Part of Czech Centre Made in Prague UK Tour

Havel
2021-11-27 18:00 - 2021-12-16 22:45
Czech film screening at 10 Picturehouse Cinemas in Cambridge, Edinburgh, Exeter, Liverpool, Oxford, York and in London – Crouch End, Finsbury Park, Hackney, Notting Hill Gate
For date, time and booking link, click on the location.

Havel, up close and personal: such is the new biopic by director Slávek Horák of the critically esteemed Home Care. Focusing on the period 1968 – 1989 and Havel´s personal life, Horák explores Havel´s metamorphosis from internationally celebrated but persecuted playwright to banned and jailed human rights defender and finally to president of Czechoslovakia. But it is his relationship with his first wife Olga, suffering from her husband’s infidelities, that is at the centre of the story.
Situations from his life such as the secret police witnessing his failed attempt to resolve a love tringle in a restaurant mirror his absurdist plays, provide humour and emotion while Horák’s imaginative use of actual theatre settings to stage key moments from Havel’s confrontations with communist power document his public persona.
An excellent cast including Viktor Dvořák capturing Havel’s moments of uncertainty and weakness, and Anna Geislerová as direct and decisive Olga, complement a portrayal depicting not an icon but a flawed man who steps out of his comfort zone to become politically engaged. Watch out for news footage from Havel’s life under the end credits including the Rolling Stones in Prague castle.
Slávek Horák, Czech Republic 2020, English subtitles
Cast: Viktor Dvořák, Anna Geislerová, Martin Hofmann, Barbora Seidlová
Nominated for The Czech Lions 2020 Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Screenplay and the Czech Film Critics Awards
Part of Czech Centre Made in Prague UK Tour

Emmy Destinn Young Singers Awards 2021
2021-11-26 19:00 - 21:30 | Velehrad London, 39 Lonsdale Road, London, SW13 9JP, United Kingdom
The Emmy Destinn Young Singers Awards competition was established in 2000 in London and takes place every two years.

12th Competition Final – talented young singers performing Czech arias and songs.
Lara Harvey (mezzo soprano)

Catherin Hooper (soprano)
Samantha Quillish (soprano)
Caroline Taylor (soprano)
Nikola Uramová (soprano)
Sam Utley (tenor)

Tickets £5 on the day at the venue (includes a glass of wine)

A marriage
2021-11-23 19:00 - 20:15 | Czech Embassy cinema, 26 Kensington Palace Gardens, London, W8 4QY
Love against all the odds. Can a meaningful relationship be forged online disregarding borders, age and cultural differences?
Strong willed, charismatic Zdenka, from the Czech Republic, and Tabish, IT engineer from Pakistan met playing online games on Facebook, became friends, fell in love and married. Five years later they still live their married life on screen, Skyping every day except for their annual three week holidays in Sri Lanka. Tabish is younger than wheelchair user Zdenka and the Czech authorities won’t accept theirs is a genuine relationship repeatedly refusing Tabish an entry visa while his own family remains suspicious of the relationship. After years of trying to prove their ‘real love’ to the authorities, a breakthrough in their case gives Tabish and Zdenka new hope that their dream of living together could finally come true.
Shot in traditional verité style, the directors, Czech Katerina Hager and Emmy award winning Pakistani director Asad Faruqi, capture the couple’s spontaneity and love while exposing the social prejudices of the digitally connected but divided world we live in.
see booking link below
Katerina Hager, Asad Farugi, CZ/USA 2021, 74’, English subtitles
For booking details see website link below
Premiered at the 2021 HotDocs Festival in Toronto
Part of the 25th Made in Prague Festival

Shadow country
2021-11-21 17:00 - 19:15 | The Gate Picturehouse, 87 Notting Hill Gate, London, W11 3JZ, United Kingdom
A powerful and striking portrayal of a close-knit village community on the Czech-Austrian border between the 1930s and the 1950s where everyone must choose their allegiances when faced with shifting territories and conflicting ideologies. Marie, a Czech, is married to Karel, an older German, and lives with quiet dignity and kindness a happy family life. Persuaded by Karel she changes her nationality to German, a decision they both regret when with the end of the war the village once again becomes Czech. Through the fates of individual villagers and their families Sláma, inspired by a real case of the execution of Germans, builds a tale of life-long neighbours who turn from allies to enemies.
Seen by the director as a celebration of female sensibility and sanity, this is an epic film based on an excellent script and filled with intimate intertwined stories, stunning cinematography and nuanced acting.
see booking link below
Bohdan Sláma, Czech Republic, Slovakia 2020, 135’, English subtitles
Cast: Magdalena Borová, Stanislav Majer, Pavel Nový, Barbora Poláková, Csongor Kassai
Winner of the main Czech Film Critics Award and of seven Czech National Film Awards.
Part of the 25th Made in Prague Festival

My sunny Maad
2021-11-20 18:45 - 20:30 | The Gate Picturehouse, 87 Notting Hill Gate, London, W11 3JZ, United Kingdom
When Herra, a Czech woman, falls in love with Nazir, an Afghan man, she has no idea about the life that awaits her in Afghanistan, nor about the family she is about to join.
While studying Economics in Prague, blue-eyed, blonde Helena falls in love with her schoolmate Nazir and a few months later moves with him to Kabul as his wife. Changing her name to Herra and swapping a single western-style of life for her husband’s large family in post-Taliban Afghanistan, she quickly assimilates into the family dynamics. She adores the grandfather, allies with her sister-in-law against her abusive husband, and supports her teenage niece who is to be married against her will, striking a balance between the sheltered life of a married woman in a burka with her work for the US Embassy. But it is Maad, an abandoned child who she and Nazir adopt, who brings love and sunshine to her family.
Leaving politics in the background while focusing on the family relationships, Pavlátová uses her skills as an award winning animator (1993 Oscar Nominee, winner at the Berlin and Annecy Film Festivals) to bring the touching story vividly to life letting Herra and Maad drive the narrative with their insightful matter-of-fact commentary.
Followed by Q&A with director Michaela Pavlátová
see booking link below
Michaela Pavlátová, Czech Republic, France, Slovakia 2021, 81 mins, English subtitles
Feature Films Annecy Film Festival 2021 Jury Award
Part of the 25th Made in Prague Festival

Every single minute
2021-11-20 16:00 - 18:00 | The Gate Picturehouse, 87 Notting Hill Gate, London, W11 3JZ, United Kingdom
Are we doing enough or too little for our children? In this absorbing documentary Erika Hníková raises questions about raising children following hyper-competitive parents who devote all their time to maximising their son’s physical and academic potential.
Swimming, running, piano lessons, hockey practice, endurance training, bilingual language games, bike riding and tennis; every possible exercise and training over and over again. This is the everyday reality for Miško, a three-year old boy whose loving and hyper-competitive parents devote all their time to making him a future top athlete and successful human being according to the principles of the Kamevéda childrearing method – a complex approach to developing a child’s motor abilities and intellect. In their attempts to maximise their son’s potential, not one minute is wasted. A busy schedule doesn’t spare time for friendship and social interaction for either of them but Miško, who is expected to excel in everything, surpasses his peers in academic and physical performance. Keeping her distance and leaving the audience to form their own opinion, Hníková provokes discussion on the meaning of parenting today while following the family dynamic throughout the year in this absorbing documentary, unique in depth and focus.
Followed by Q&A with director Erica Hníková.
see booking link below
Erika Hnikova, CZ / SK 2021, 80’, English subtitles
Special Jury Prize at the 2021 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
Part of the 25th Made in Prague Festival

Diary of a modern dad
2021-11-19 18:30 - 19:45 | The Gate Picturehouse, 87 Notting Hill Gate, London, W11 3JZ, United Kingdom
Buoyant romantic comedy about non-traditional parenting and love inspired by a popular blog by Dominik Landsman describing his experience as a new father who decides to stay at home and look after his child.
Welcome to my world, welcome to hell’. The world and words belong to Dominik, anaspiring young writer and now stay at home father. A pragmatic decision taken by him and Nataša when their one night stand turns unexpectedly into conception. Postponing his departure for a creative writing course in England for 12 months to look after their baby, Dominik hopes to write his book while Nataša returns to her high paid job. Čeněk, his new-born son, soon turns this plan on its head and Dominik has to apply all his ingenuity just to survive. Based on a successful blog by Dominik Landsman describing the joys and troubles of a new father, the real life situations accompanied by the dry first person commentary are pitch perfect and bring a lot of humour supported by a great cast utilising Mádl´s comic talent and Tereza Ramba´s recent experience of motherhood as young parents whose relationship changes with a growing love for their child. Stylized, playful and fun.
see booking link below
Jan Haluza, Czech Republic 2021, 101 min, English subtitles
Cast: Jiří Mádl, Tereza Ramba, Lukáš Hejlík, Ondřej Malý, Pavla Tomicová
Part of the 25th Made in Prague Festival

Vilém Tauský Coventry: a meditation
2021-11-12 19:30 - 21:30 | Royal Pump Rooms, The Parade, Leamington Spa, CV32 4AA, United Kingdom
A programme by the Jubilee Quartet based on the moving work that Vilém Tauský wrote in November 1940 after going into Coventry with a Czech Free Army ambulance and seeing the smouldering ruins of the cathedral. Tauský was stationed in Leamington with the Czech Free Army [see his profile].
2021 Leamington Music Autumn Season
Tauský Coventry: A Meditation
Mendelssohn Quartet in A minor Op 13
Schubert Quartet in D minor D810 ‘Death and the Maiden’
Tereza Privratska and Julia Loucks violins
Lorena Cantó Woltèche viola, Toby White cello
Tickets: £25 centre | £15 sides (see link below)
Concert generously supported by the Low-Beer Trust

Zátopek
2021-11-12 19:00 - 22:00 | Vue West End, 3 Cranbourn Street, London, WC2H 7NG, United Kingdom
The riveting story of a Czech Olympic icon and one of the greatest runners of all time, Emil Zátopek, who became a global byword for sportsmanship and generosity and who was driven into obscurity by the Communists after standing up for ‘socialism with a human face’.
An inspiring portrayal of the Czech Olympic legend Emil Zátopek, one of the greatest long-distance runners of all time, who won five Olympic medals, set eighteen world records and redefined the limits of human endurance. It´s autumn 1968 and in the wake of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia the Australian runner Ron Clarke visits the retired Zátopek, his friend and role model, to help him to overcome a crisis in his sporting career. With Zátopek in the midst of his own marital and personal crises, they walk down memory lane recalling Zátopek’s athletic career from Zlín factory worker who had never taken part in a race to Olympic hero in Helsinki, while mapping the inner journey of a single-minded man whose unprecedented athletic success made him part of Communist propaganda with devastating results.
Wonderfully portrayed by lead actors Václav Neužil and Martha Issová, it is the relationship between Zátopek and his wife Dana, champion javelin thrower, which is at the heart of the story. As past and present alternate, emotions and adrenalin run high culminating in a breathtaking reanactment of Zátopek’s 1952 Olympic gold hat-trick in Helsinki.
Followed by Q&A with director David Ondříček, Václav Neužil, Martha Issová and Kryštof Mucha
For booking details see Eventbrite link below
Part of the 25th Made in Prague Festival
Audience prize winner at the 2021 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
Czech entry in the best international film category at the 2022 Oscars

Ecstasy
2021-11-07 15:00 - 16:30 | Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS, United Kingdom
A special screening of the digital restoration in 4K of Gustav Machatý’s 1933 defiant masterpiece: the UK premiere of this cult classic film.
Probably the most widely seen Czech film of all time, it stirred controversy and uproar due to its portrayal of female nudity and suggestive sexual content and shot its director and the actress Hedy Lamarr to international recognition. Lamarr plays sexually frustrated newlywed Eva whose older husband is interested in anything but her. After returning to her father’s house Eva, while swimming in the lake, meets Adam, a young engineer, and starts an adulterous affair.
Exploring erotic desires and romantic themes already present in his previous films, Machatý teams up with cinematographer Jan Stallich to transform a simple story into a visual feast of passion rich in symbolism, using exquisite compositions, thrilling montage and outstanding exterior photography full of unconventional shots.
Finan Jones conducts the Silk Street Soloists performing a newly commissioned overture by Anna Vöröšová based on the original score by the film composer Giuseppe Becce.
Gustav Machatý, Czechoslovakia 1933, 90’ DCP
Cast: Hedy Lamarr, Aribert Mog, Zvonimir Rogoz
Best Director Award at the 1934 Venice International Film Festival and Venice Classics Award for Best Restored Film at the 2019 Venice Film Festival.
25th Made in Prague Festival Opening Gala
Booking open see website link below

Prague: Belonging in the Modern City
2021-11-04 17:00 - 18:30 | University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom
A SSEES Study of Central Europe Seminar with Chad Bryant.
Vojtěch Berger was a carpenter, a member of the interwar Czechoslovak Communist Party, and an obsessive diarist who lived in Prague from 1921 until his death forty years later. For Berger and other party members, including top Communist leaders, Communism was much more than a political ideology or movement. It was world unto itself that offered radical leftists a shared sense of security and place following the horrors of World War I and the emergence of a hostile, yet tolerant, First Czechoslovak Republic. Berger’s self-documented life offers a rare window into Communist practices of belonging between the wars – participation in a wide range of associations, marching on May Day, and joining comrades for a drink at the local pub, to name just a few. Eschewing terms such as “identity,” Bryant argues that pursuing questions about how and where people pursue a sense of belonging offers more than just a fresh perspective on the interwar Czechoslovak Communist Party. They touch on broader themes in modern European history, including the ever-present burden of creating for oneself a sense of home and community in the face of unrelenting change and dislocation.
To register use Eventbrite link below
This event will take place on UCL campus. Should circumstances change, the event will be delivered online.
Chad Bryant is the author of the recently published Prague: Belonging and the Modern City as well as Prague in Black: Nazi Rule and Czech Nationalism, winner of the Hans Rosenberg Book Prize. Bryant is Associate Professor of History at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has received fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies and the National Humanities Center. He is, with Kateřina Čapková and Diana Dumitru, embarking on a study of the Stalinist-era show trials in Communist Czechoslovakia.

Jenůfa
2021-11-01 08:00 - 2021-11-26 23:30
The first Royal Opera House production of Janáček’s opera since 2001 is now available to watch on demand until 14 November

https://stream.roh.org.uk/free-titles/videos/jenufa

It will also be broadcast on 23 October on BBC Radio 3 @ 6.30pm and subsequently available for about a month see here

photo
Asmik Grigorian (Jenůfa)
© ROH | Monika Rittershaus

Czech protest music past & present
2021-10-27 18:30 - 20:00
An online Zoom talk by Daniel Majer about the political role Czech protest music has played in Czech and Slovak history from the Austro-Hungarian empire until today.
Following the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, Karel Kryl composed ‘Bratříčku, zavírej vrátka’ (Keep the gates closed, little brother) as his reaction to the occupation. In 1972 the Slovak dissident Ján Ladislav Kalina was given a two-year prison sentence for, among other things, playing a record of Kryl’s songs to friends in the privacy of his home. In the eyes of the law during the period of normalization, that amounted to incitement.
In the early 1970s the Czech rock band, the Plastic People of the Universe, began using the lyrics of the poet Egon Bondy and other poets for their songs. In 1976 they were sent to prison for up to 18 months for performing at a festival which the court condemned as “an organised disturbance of the peace”. The group continues to perform despite the death of its founder, Milan “Mejla” Hlavsa. Their music is the focus of a new book in English ‘ A consumer guide to the Plastic People of the Universe’.
In 1989 Czech musicians, many of them banned from performing or in exile, played a significant role in toppling the communist regime. In 2007 the Czech daily MFDnes published the results of a poll to name the most important song associated with the Velvet Revolution. Marta Kubišová’s ‘Modlitba pro Martu’ (Prayer for Marta) won by a landslide.
Daniel Majer, born in Britain of Czech and Slovak parentage, will present musical excerpts from Brno where he is studying as part of his course in Czech and Spanish at Bristol University.
If you wish to participate please register with bcsa@bcsa.co.uk by 25 October

Lakes International Comic Art Festival
2021-10-15 10:00 - 2021-10-17 17:00 | Lakes International Comic Art Festival, Kendal, United Kingdom
Working in partnership with the Czech Literary Centre, the Lakes International Comic Art Festival has announced the addition of five Czech comic creators to the Festival’s line-up in October, including award-winning Kateřina Čupová and Václav Šlajch.
The Czech Literary Centre is also supporting two international artists’ residencies in association with LICAF. Kateřina Čupová and Štěpánka Jislová will be working in Kendal before this year’s weekend-long Festival, and a similar exchange enabled graphic novelist Sayra Begum to work in Prague this summer, and Rachael Smith, the creator of Quarantine Comix, is set to visiting the European capital later this year.
Read more plus profiles of the five Czechs here
tickets available from link below
Art from Kateřina Čupová’s debut graphic novel, Rossum’s Universal Robots, an adaptation of Karel Čapek’s drama R.U.R

My Seven Lives and More
2021-10-03 19:00 - 21:00
This Zoom event will introduce Agneša Kalinová (1924-2014) – a Slovak-Jewish journalist, film critic and translator. Agneša’s fascinating story has been captured in Mojich sedem životov, a book-length conversation conducted by the Slovak playwright, writer and social activist Jana Juránová, which was published by the feminist publishing house ASPEKT in 2012. Translated into Czech, German and Hungarian, this captivating narrative will be published by Purdue University Press as My Seven Lives on 15 October 2021.
Agneša’s daughter, Julia Sherwood (who has translated the book into English with her husband Peter), will join the conversation from London and the book’s co-author and Agneša’s interlocutor Jana Juránová will speak from Bratislava. They will be interviewed by Peter Brod, Agneša’s former colleague from Radio Free Europe, who now lives in Prague.
To register use Eventbrite link below.
The event is a part of lecture series Literature by and about Czech and Slovak Jews organized by the Society for the History of Czechoslovak Jews and Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences, New York Chapter, with support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic and Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association.
The lecture will be streamed on ZOOM, recorded and available on YouTube.

Largo desolato
2021-09-25 18:00 - 2021-09-26 18:00 | Velehrad London, 39 Lonsdale Road, London, SW13 9JP, United Kingdom
The Barnes Community Players will perform rehearsed readings of this extraordinary play.
Largo Desolato was written by Václav Havel and translated by Czech-born Tom Stoppard.
The play speaks to our present obsession with “fake news” and our constant fear for our privacy. Havel struggled to accept the importance his words held for those who leaned on them during the troubled times of the Cold War; it might startle him to learn that they have transcended time and are still relevant.
tickets £10 see link below

TON Bentwood Furniture
2021-09-20 18:30 - 19:45
TON, the renowned Czech furniture maker, celebrates 160 years of bentwood production.
Join this free online panel discussion on Zoom with designer Florian Kallus from Kaschkasch Studio, Adam Štěch, the author of the publication +-160 Years, and Alex Gufler, designer and Artistic Director of TON, and explore the story of bentwood furniture from the radical invention of Michael Thonet to the present day.
Discussing their personal stories with TON and the role of designers and master craftsmen in building a sustainable brand identity, the panellists will highlight TON’s iconic designs and introduce a new collection.
Chaired by Max Fraser, Director of Spotlight.
register on Eventbrite link below to receive Zoom link
Adam Štěch: +-160 YEARS; THE ORIGIN AND EXPANSION OF BENTWOOD FURNITURE FROM BYSTŘICE POD HOSTÝNEM
Adam Štěch documents the fascinating birth and dynamic development of the revolutionary wood bending technology through the combination of historical facts with personal stories, famous names, iconic products, forgotten witnesses, and little-known historical artifacts. The result is a visual and textual collage about the past, present, and future of bentwood in Bystřice pod Hostýnem. www.plusminus160.com
TON | Four Seasons. – YouTube
Part of the London Design Festival

Folkový recitál
2021-09-18 18:00 - 21:00 | Bohemia House, 74 West End Lane, London, NW6 2LX, United Kingdom
Music recital by Czech songwriter Slávek Janoušek.
tickets £10 via Eventbrite link below
Bohemia House

Reimagining 'The Heart of Europe'
2021-09-17 09:00 - 20:30
Inaugural Online Conference of the UK Czechoslovak Studies Network University of Oxford.
The day will bring together researchers on the region to discuss current projects, establish connections, and spotlight areas for collaboration. Following our call for papers, we welcomed proposals for papers from researchers of all disciplines within the humanities, arts, and social sciences.
For full details see Reimagining ‘The Heart of Europe’ Conference | TORCH | The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities
To register see link below.

This conference is generously supported by The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH)

Bye Bye Shanghai
2021-09-13 19:00 - 21:00 | Czech Embassy cinema, 26 Kensington Palace Gardens, London, W8 4QY
Comparing making a film about exile to a highly painful but necessary visit to the dentist, Bokova, herself an émigrée, sets out to explore various aspects of emigration, its effect on people’s lives and the impossibility of stepping into the same river twice.

As one of her protagonist says: “You return to your 30s but everyone around you is 60.“ Moving betwen the streets of Prague, Paris and Buenos Aires and talking to a fascinating variety of émigrés such as philosopher Vaclav Belohradsky who left because of the 1968 Soviet Invasion; singer songwriter Vlasta Tresnak, endlessly interrogated and tortured by the state secret police, who had to choose between prison and emigration; poet and translator Petr Kral reflecting upon the mechanism of totalitarian power, Bokova builds a captivating documentary essay about home, the world and staying in those fictious spaces. And about friends.

Czech Republic/Argentina 2008, 114’, English subtitles

UK PREMIERE
Free entry, reservation necessary see link below

Followed by Q&A with Jana Bokova and Henrietta Foster on exile and identity
Film director Jana Bokova has been living between London, Paris and Buenos Aires since 1968 making films in four countries and four languages – English, French, Spanish and Czech. Czech-born Bokova left her home country in 1968 at the time of the Soviet invasion
