The Czech Way

Martin Kohout / Czech Republic, Slovakia / 2015 / World Premiere / 92 min.

synopsis

In this film on Czechoslovakia’s post-communist “coupon privatization”, the central them among the many opinions and reminiscences heard in interviews with historians and participants is the conflict between the predatory capitalistic order and the more socially conceived alternative, which remains alive and well in Czech politics today. Precisely because of this emphasis on the older debate regarding social aspects of society, this look back at the early days of Czech capitalism is relevant today. Using the blunt, timeless method of “talking heads”, the film reveals that just after the revolution a significant percent of the population was in favor of some type of socialism. The film this searches for reasons why the country turned towards capitalism.

DETAIL:
“And that’s why I’m a libertarian, and that’s why I’m all for a free market - tens of thousands just have to try it so that one of them can succeed, and most of the time it’s purely chance that it works out for them.”

biography

Martin Kohout is a student at FAMU’s documentary film department, and previously studied sociology at Charles University’s Faculty of Arts, where his bachelor’s thesis was also on the coupon privatization. His student films JUDr. Michal Danišovič (2010), about the police commander who was responsible for the police crackdown on protesters during the Velvet Revolution, and The Invisible Hand of the Market: Privatization of Barrandov (2012) were presented at the Jihlava IDFF.

more about film

director:	Martin Kohout
producer:	Tomáš Michálek, Michael Kaboš, Alexandra Gunišová Ševčíková, Ondřej Šejnoha
script:	Martin Kohout
photography:	Tomáš Pavelek
editing:	Martin Kohout, Michal Böhm
sound:	Andrej Sinkević