Remembering

Are Czechs happy? What do they strive for? Are Czechs impassive or do they desire personal and social changes? What is the feeling of a contemporary citizen of Prague, the capital city of the Czech Republic? In March 2006 Ivan Vojnár's documentary searched for answers to some of these questions focused mostly on the reflection of personal issues and feelings. Has the social and political climate changed considerably since 1989? A waitress at an international hotel is setting tables for breakfast. Her feeling is that "not much has changed since the Revolution, perhaps just traveling, people are weary, they don't know who to vote for. I have a daughter who is to go to college, the things that we are facing, I am quite scared of all of it." Are the answers truthful or are they partial self-stylizations? Are the Czechs prone to accepting certain roles and masks? What is the problem? How to get rid of it? The film is not offering solutions; it just explores the ideas of present-day Czechs. French documentary filmmaker Jean Rouch says that cinéma vérité is not about representing truth but about truthful representation. Director Ivan Vojnár drew inspiration from public inquiry films from the 1960s: Jean Rouch's Chronique d'un été (1961), Chris Marker's Le Joli mai (1962) and the film of moral discomfort by Czech filmmaker Evald Schorm - Zrcadlení.