Series Site
"For a too-brief time, before the arrial of Soviet tanks in August, 1968 put an end to the thaw of the "Prague Spring" and the groundswell of artistic liberation that had preceded it, Czechoslovakia was home to one of the most exciting filmmaking scenes in the world. At the center of it were Miloš Forman and Ivan Passer, two friends, boarding school classmates, and collaborators who seemed to urge one another towards excellence. Before both went on to escape the Eastern bloc for brilliant careers in the U.S., they together in their native land enacted a reinvigoration of naturalistic filmmaking, injected with sly comedy and delicacy of feeling—a slim body of work that is startlingly alive, and the thrilling work of free artists."-Metrograph