PRAGUE (Britské listy), February 23, 2008:
How to resist death
Babí léto (Indian Summer) (2001), directed by Vladimír Michálek
This film is a tour de force of three distinguished Czech actors of the older generation, Vlastimil Brodský, Stella Zázvorková and Stanislav Zindulka. First of all, though, it is a magnificent performance by Vlastimil Brodský. The belief that space for the realisation of individual human aspirations is restricted by unchangeable facts seems typically Czech. The Czech awareness that space for human initiative is always limited, is probably much closer to the understanding of the human predicament than the (Americanised) belief that radical action and the use of force may bring satisfaction and happiness.
(An excerpt, translated into English for international students at Glasgow University, taken from Jan Čulík's book on post-communist Czech feature film "Jací jsme", Host, Brno, 2007.
In Babí léto, there are two main obstacles for the protagonists to grapple with: old age and regime change. The main characters are more than seventy years old. They have to deal with the imminence of death. They have spent their lives living under a totalitarian system. More notes
