’68

In the spring of 1968, Parisian students, together with workers, protest against the conservative right-wing government of General de Gaulle. Their ideals: an emancipated world, the end of colonialism, and a fight against authoritarianism. That same year, on August 21, the Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia is violently suppressed by the invasion of Warsaw Pact troops, discrediting leftist ideals for decades to come. Cut.

The stage sets of an era that believed in a better world are being cleared away, and tomorrow it’s back to work. Were the protesters of 1968 on both sides of the Iron Curtain fighting the same struggle—or were they, in fact, standing against each other? We return—journey to the Musée du Cinéma!

Young students form a revolutionary cell in the style of La Chinoise. Locked in the apartment of wealthy parents who have gone on holiday, they write their manifesto. Smoke, discussions, posturing. Their demands are, in many ways, justified—but their views on how to achieve them and how to interpret them ideologically begin to fracture. How do you convince society of your truth—if not through violence? And besides—isn’t all of this just a reconstruction of a film?

Elder witnesses of 1968 in Czechoslovakia sit in a dreamlike waiting room resembling a junk shop, smoking a joint. Are they waiting for someone? Perhaps for their children? They pass the endless time by recalling the film Stolen Kisses, which deliberately sidelines the political context of 1968 and instead presents a genre-driven story of detectives investigating the love affairs of the wealthy. A world immersed in romance!

But is it possible not to think about the time we live in? What matters more—truth or beauty? Is it possible to dream of something better than a normalized world? And above all—is it possible to overcome a divided society? Or a divided view of 1968? Fifty years later, do we see things more clearly?

A playful stage essay by J. A. Pitínský as a call for the avant-garde.

Season 43: Eternal Return — Crisis of the Future