How was the hilarious yet extremely astute Czech Dream born? FILIP REMUNDA, one of the two visionary directors of the film, fills us in about their inspiration, and their take on all the controversy surrounding Czech Dream.
The Czech Republic used to be a Communist country (Czechoslovakia), and ideological propaganda pervaded. However the country is now capitalist and inundated with commercial propaganda. Supermarkets and shopping malls are expanding quickly, and people are spending whole weekends visiting them. Czech Dream was our artistic response to this.
Vít Klusák and I met during the workshop led by director Karel Vachek at FAMU film academy in Prague. After discussing philosopher Vilém Flusser’s Behind the Philosophy of Photography, we talked about the "electronic images" of our time, and also about Czech media. Vít mentioned an incident involving his friends, actor Petr Lorenc and artist Krištof Kintera, who organised a grand public opening of the GIDADIGA Supermarket, which offered non-existing products. When I heard about their performance I immediately told Vít, this is a film. We started to develop it into a script and wanted serious companies and business professionals to be involved.
We wanted to be controversial. We wanted to provoke. We succeeded in prompting the public to reflect upon themselves and the media. The international press understood what we were getting at with Czech Dream, but the Czech media did not. Nonetheless, the Czech language today has gained a new term of expression. "Czech Dream" is often used to refer to political trickery.
To the aspiring directors out there, I hope you will go beyond the conventions of a genre. Be ready to take risks. You can create a film without a clear message or ending. Go ahead even if you are not sure what it is you want to say. Let the film be smarter than you are, and let it be inspirational.
Filip Remunda is a graduate of prestigious film academy Fakulta Akademie Múzických Umění (FAMU). His film, was named best documentary film at the 2002 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and at the 2003 FAMU Festival, and it received the Don Quixote Award at the 2003 Art Film Trenčianské Teplice festival, as well as several other prizes at festivals in Europe and the United States.
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