New Hyperion, or Liberty, Equality, Brotherhood

Returning to filmmaking after more than two decades as a political persona non grata, Karel Vachek crafted this carnivalesque, collage-like portrait of Czech and Slovak democracy in rebirth, as the country (still Czechoslovakia at the time) holds its first parliamentary elections since 1945. Pope John Paul II pays a visit. Alexander Dubček and Mikhail Gorbachev leave the stage. Václav Havel comes to power. Activists, artists, politicians, philosophers and dissidents debate the meaning of events, while Vachek, with a complex weave of sounds, images, ideas, incidents, details and gestures, fashions his own fascinating, highly original, multilayered film-argument about this unique moment in history. His previous film, 1968’s Elective Affinities, had been an account of that year’s Czechoslovakian presidential election. "For 22 years I hadn’t shot anything. Into this film, I tried to cram all the ideas that, in those 22 years, I’d thought of or thought through regarding how man should act. I was very afraid. But it was fun for me" (Karel Vachek). Colour, 35mm, in Czech and Slovak with English subtitles. 207 mins. + intermission.