Kateřina Krobová

Václav Havel, Prague – Castle 2 is the second part in what should be a documentary trilogy charting Havel's early years at the Prague Castle. In the early 1990s, the Prague Castle was a morally and culturally devastated place, soon to be radically transformed by Havel, a creative person and insightful playwright. The Castle opened up to people, arts and culture, much in the same way the Czech Republic gradually opened up to the world, as manifested in the visits by the Rolling Stones and George Bush Sr. Featuring Bush Sr., Theodor Pištěk, Michael Kocáb and many others, this film was also one of the last on-screen appearances by Václav Havel.

This documentary film is being made at a time of great social turmoil that has hit all parts of the globe, including the Czech Republic. Next to a number of initiatives that try to create an alternative to existing political parties, there are also some more radical forces pushing their way up. Left-wing activists, protagonists of this film, are looking for a paradise on earth. Can they find it? Recent months and years have been fairly explosive in the social domain. According to many sociologists and political scientists, the economic crisis and absence of trust in politics are the perfect breeding ground for demagogues and seekers of “paradise on earth“. Where can this search take them? Where is the boundary between beneficial involvement in public matters and destructive attempts to dismantle democracy?