PRIVATE UNIVERSE

Czechoslovakia, 1974: the director films her pregnant friend. Originally intended as a 15-minute documentary, the home video develops into a long-term study that will last for 37 years. The family grows and, during the time of the so-called normalisation, establishes its own “private universe.” Alongside this the film depicts the changes taking place in Czech society using archive footage: Karel Gott returning from Las Vegas; the space race; the story of the nation from the advancing panzers to the jingling of keys in Wenceslas Square. There is also a particular focus on Honza, the firstborn, an anarchist globetrotter whose life has been in no way straightforward. Hana Hadas