Czech Journal: The Little Mole & Laozi

synopsis

In one episode of Czech Journal, Filip Remunda focuses on the Chinese president’s visit to the Czech Republic and launches into confrontational discussions with the citizens of a country that violates human rights and where people are imprisoned for their opinions, but whose population proudly voices their allegiance to their prospering country. Footage of the protests held by the Czech public, and in the opposite situation, when the Chinese greet the president with joy, as well as interviews with a Chinese dissident and with a Czech teacher, are interspersed with the saying of Laozi and footage of Leonid Brezhnev’s visit to Prague in 1978. The film thus opens the question as to with whom the Czech president is fostering warm international relations.

“More than the protests, I was interested in the fact that the Chinese find us ridiculous for allowing people to protest. I went to China to get at the roots of this attitude.”

biography

Director Filip Remunda (1973), in collaboration with director Vít Klusák started the Hypermarket Film Production Company, and together they made the ironic confrontational documentaries Czech Dream (2004, Jihlava IDFF 2007) and Czech Peace (2010, Jihlava IDFF 2010). Independently Remunda has filmed such documentaries as The Tadpole, the Rabbit, and the Holy Ghost (2007, Jihlava IDFF 2007), about a radical Orthodox priest. Since 2016, he has been working on the television series Czech Journal.

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