28th Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival

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BLACK CZECHS
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BLACK CZECHS
BLACK CZECHS
BLACK CZECHS
BLACK CZECHS
BLACK CZECHS
BLACK CZECHS

BLACK CZECHS

director: Martin Müller
original title: ČERNÍ ČEŠI
country: Czech Republic
year: 2022
running time: 65 min.

synopsis

In the 1980s, dozens of Namibian children were brought up in socialist Czechoslovakia. The aim of this special education program was to raise a new generation of children as a politically conscious elite. But the experiment ended in the early 1990s following fundamental political changes in both countries. The children were forcibly repatriated back to Namibia where they were unable to adapt culturally due to never having completed their elementary education nor receiving any formal language and psychological training. Documentary filmmakers tracked down the now-adult Namibian children and followed their fates both in Namibia and in the Czech Republic over the course of three years.

“No one has the right to take away their childhood and crush their dreams. No matter the time period, country, culture, or ideology in which it happens – it's just plain criminal.”

biography

Martin Müller is the head of Audiovisual Production at Palacký University Olomouc. He studied film and theatre at Palacký University Olomouc. He worked for Czech Television as a programmer before later working for Studio Velehrad Olomouc. He made his feature debut with the film The Borders of a Shadow (1996) and is the auteur of a number of social advertisements and made-for-TV documentaries.

more about film

director: Martin Müller
producer: Daniel Kunz, Lenka Poláková
script: Kateřina Mildnerová
photography: Radim Kaller, Dan Tyrlík
editing: Tomáš Doruška
sound: Karel Vaněk
Ministerstvo kultury
Fond kinematografie
Creative Europe Media
Město Jihlava
Kraj Vysočina
GEMO
Česká televize
Český rozhlas
Aktuálně.cz
Respekt
Dafilms