#VACLAV HAVEL VERNISSAGE ARCHIVE#
Václav Havel, photo: archive of Czech Radio“What was very interesting for me first was the life – how absurdly this nation had lived – the absurdity of the whole situation, which Václav Havel mentioned in his writings. What were the specific things that made you think of what you had experienced at home? And what was so pleasant again was that when I was reading the letter I was feeling an Iranian wrote it, which had a huge impact on me.” I read it here in the Václav Havel Library and I found the text translated into Farsi, which was so pleasant for me to read. “I would like to tell you about my first impulse when I read the letter. When you read the letter you found a lot of points that echoed things that you’d experienced yourself or you felt were very similar in Iran. Havel’s position was becoming increasingly difficult and he was pushed right onto the margins of society as a dissident. This was a time when Husák had just become president of Czechoslovakia. There are some similarities between the experiences of the nations.”Īnd that brings me to Václav Havel and his Letter to Gustav Husák in 1975. “We didn’t experience the communists, but the Islamic Republic in Iran had an effect on the country and nation in a way that made me think about it. “I was surprised to see very different conditions from my country, but at the same time very similar experiences – in the history of the countries.”Īnd what you’re talking about in particular is the experience that Czechoslovakia had of communism, especially in the 1970s and 80s, where you see similarities with the situation in Iran today. Having come here, I think you found a lot of parallels with your own country that you didn’t expect to find. I was living in Dubai and I was looking for English-speaking schools for acting and that’s why I ended up here.” How did you come to be in the Czech Republic – and where are you from? At the moment I study theatre directing at the Drama Faculty in Prague.” In a few minutes we shall be hearing that discussion, but we’ll start with Azadeh herself, talking to me about what Havel’s Letter to Husák means to her personally.Īzadeh Mohammadi, photo: archive of Azadeh Mohammadi“My name is Azadeh Mohammadi. She decided to find out more and part of that process was a radio discussion that she recorded about the letter’s legacy with Barbara Day and Viera Langerová, who have both studied Havel’s work closely, and Omid Nikfarjam, a Prague-based Iranian journalist and translator. Azadeh Mohammadi is a Prague-based student from Iran, who came across the letter in Farsi translation and found many parallels with her own experiences growing up in Iran over three decades after it was written. Today times are very different, but the warnings in the letter remain as relevant as ever. It outlined the creeping fear, apathy and humiliation faced by Czechs and Slovaks amid the cultural stagnation in the first years after the Soviet-led invasion of 1968. The letter was to become one of the key documents of dissent during the period of “normalization”. The Los Angeles Chapter of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts & Sciences sponsored a first-class reception in the museum’s garden before the actual film screening, and the guests appreciated the Czech specialities.Forty years ago this week, on 8 April 1975, Václav Havel sent an open letter to Czechoslovakia’s President Gustav Husák. Jim McDonald, the film’s main figure, was present and applauded.
The audience was greeted by Justin Jampol, the Wende Museum’s founder and director, by Adam Hyman, Executive Director of Los Angeles Film Forum, and by Consul Josef Smyček of the Consulate General of the Czech Republic in Los Angeles. The Panel was moderated by Joes Segal, chief curator of the Wende Museum. Kate Dollenmayer,Īmerican actor and film preservation specialist, who has credit for preserving this film, took part in the Panel as well. The Society’s Secretary General Georges Eichler came from Paris to honor the late Ambassador Perina and to take part in the Panel Discussion. The film was introduced by his daughter Kaja Perina who lives in New York. Ambassador Rudolf Perina, distinguished member of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts & Sciences, who personally took part in the 1968 film making and its 2018 preservation, had planned to introduce this film to the public in person. The Wende Museum, specializing in the Cold War artefacts, has preserved and digitalized the only remaining copy of this 50-minute documentary, with financial support from the National Film Preservation Foundation sponsored by the U.S. Kate Dollenmayer, Georges Eichler, Kaja Perina, Joes Segal
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