Milan Kundera's novel was made into a film by director Jaromil Jireš in 1968. The film's motto is Jireš's statement: "The damage done to a person cannot be removed like a broken plaster, because human hearts have their own memory." At the time it was made, it was one of the few films that spoke openly about the repression of the 1950s and its deformation of human characters.

The student Ludvík sends his girlfriend a postcard on which he provocatively writes, among other things, "Optimism is opium for the people! A healthy mind stinks of stupidity. Long live Trotsky!" In the 1950s, the consequences were not long in coming: the girl, driven by a sacred sense of party duty, handed the postcard over to the party organization. Jahn was expelled from the party, thrown out of university and sent as a soldier to the notorious "Black Battalion" punishment unit and into mining for years.

Even years later, Ludvík cannot get over the injustice he suffered. He wants revenge, but in the end everything turns against him. After returning to his hometown, he decides to seduce the wife of Pavel Zemánek, who had betrayed him and ruined his life. When he seduces Helena, he learns that her husband already has another young, attractive wife and willingly leaves his ex-wife to a man whom he treats as if nothing had happened. Ludvík finally realizes the embarrassment of the situation and the futility of his revenge.

Director Jireš described the film as follows: "Žert is a movie about unhappy victims with memories and happy perpetrators who have lost their memories." In 1971, the film ended up in the vault under Husák - understandably, but surprisingly late - and was not shown again until 1990.

This film will be shown as part of the "Czech Film Wednesday" series, as always in the original version with German subtitles.

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Due to popular demand, we will be showing the film in both theaters again. There are two separate links for ordering tickets. If you can't get a ticket, it's still worth trying at the box office. Many of the reserved seats are only reserved and will most likely not all be used.

If you still want to get hold of the last tickets for the main auditorium:

Tickets and reservations

And in the small hall at 8.15 pm:

(This is an automatic translation by DeepL Translator.)

Tickets und Reservierungen

Milan Kundera was able to draw on his own experience for the novel, from the perspective of both the perpetrators and the victims. Like Pavel Kohout, he was a fervent communist after the war. In terms of literary quality, both wrote some terrible works in praise of the party and Stalinism and took harsh action against dissenters. So when Kundera describes the mood after 1948 and at the beginning of the 1950s in the book (and in the film), the "zeitgeist", he is actually revealing himself. While Kohout was even involved in the founding of the State Security, Kundera is only accused of occasional collaboration during this period. He denies this, but Jan Novák, for example, explains in his critical (and unauthorized) biography of Kundera that he never critically examined his own work in those years and distanced himself from it (in contrast to Kohout). Although he went into exile and is regarded in the West as a vehement critic of communism, he remains silent about his own role in its darkest years. And as the "pillar saint" of Czech literature and the world's best-known Czech author, people are happy to let him get away with it.

On the other hand, Kundera himself experienced expulsion from the party for a trivial matter after he made fun of a party training session. However, he was not humiliated and maltreated for years afterwards, but was soon allowed to return to the bosom of the party.

In this respect, Žert also appears to be a work which, although it impressively demonstrates the enthusiasm for Stalinism and the consequences for the victims of the time, which was blinded to the point of conscience, only locates its creator on one side. The impossibility of satisfying the victims for the suffering inflicted on them is literally palpable. Yet he himself apparently sees no personal guilt and cared little for the victims of the system he actively supported (says Jan Novák).

Unconfirmed fun fact: Pavel Kohout is said to have been the inspiration for the character of the "forgetful traitor" Pavel Zemánek and was supposed to play this role himself.

(This is an automatic translation by DeepL Translator.)

Czechoslovakia, 1968, 82 min, OmU

Director: Jaromil Jireš
Based on: Milan Kundera (screenplay)
Screenplay: Milan Kundera, Jaromil Jireš

The actors are: Josef Somr, Jana Dítětová, Luděk Munzar, Jaroslava Obermaierová, Milan Švrčina, Miloš Rejchrt, Evald Schorm, Věra Křesadlová, Jaromír Hanzlík

(This is an automatic translation by DeepL Translator.)