ArteActa 2022, 7:79-98 | DOI: 10.62804/aa.2022.005
The case of the school film The Uninvited Guest and the fate of its director Vlastimil Venclík, who was expelled from FAMU just before graduating in 1971 because of this film, is a relatively well-known example of political persecution during the period of the emerging normalisation. The film was made in 1969 as a studio exercise of the third year. The subject had been written in 1967, but the work was updated after the entry of Warsaw Pact troops into Czechoslovakia in August 1968 to create a clearly legible metaphor of occupation and adjustment.
Among other things, the research reveals the broader background of the decision to expel the student Venclík, including the direct intervention of the Ministry of Education. It finds reasons for the halt of the investigation by the State Security in the intervention of Venclik's teacher Otakar Vávra and points out the unclear competences in the organisation of the school's screening of the student film. School film screenings were a usual part of school operations, but Venclík was punished for them. In addition to archival materials from the collections of the Rector's Office of the Academy of Performing Arts, the author worked with secondary literature and oral history sources, including an interview with Vlastimil Venclík himself conducted specifically for this study.
Published: June 15, 2022 Show citation
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