Private Century - With Kisses from Your Love

With Kisses from Your Love. History is a mosaic of unrepeatable human destinies. Another part of the series Private Century deals with 1940s and 1950s. This film is based on the private film archives of the Šlechtl family. Marie and Josef met at the grammar school in Tabor. Josef was the son of renowned Tabor photographer Šlechtl and Marie got to know the environment of their family studio. Photography and film soon became part of her life. During the second half of 1940s, they rebuilt the studio which they inherited from Josef's father and which included a large photo archive. Their work involved visits to President Beneš who had a villa in nearby Sezimovo Ústí. Josef and Marie felt that they had their destiny in their own hands. After 1948 the relationship of Josef and Maria was still stronger than the politically charged milieu they lived in and which they managed to cut off from their lives. However, in the end the regime ground them down. At first it was the nationalization of their studio, later a staged trial against Josef, because the communists expected to find discrediting material in the family photo archive. Their story is accompanied by affectionate letters which Josef sent from prison. It shows their defiance in the face of Communist absurdity in which Josef and Marie had to live.