Citizen Havel Goes on Vacation

This 80-minute documentary recreates a trip across Czechoslovakia. Václav Havel took the trip in 1985 when he was still the country's most prominent dissident. In the course of one week, he was twice thrown into jail for 48 hours of preventive detention and followed by over 300 plainclothed policemen, who would helpfully point out to him the right way whenever he got lost. Contrasted with the authentic Czech TV news of the period (the harvest was going swimmingly), the stories of Havel and his dissident hosts show that you can live a great life even under the staggering pressure of a totalitarian juggernaut.
A Czech emigree in Chicago, the writer and screenwriter Jan Novák, who had been awarded the Magnesia Litera prize for a documentary novel OK So Far, created and produced this film.