"Žert" (The Joke) based on Milan Kundera on February 5 at Czech Film Wednesday
20.01.2025
February's Czech Film Wednesday will be a little more serious: we are showing the 1968 film "Žert" (The Joke), based on the novel of the same name by the great Milan Kundera.
This film is about a young man - himself a communist - who is not only expelled from the party for a private joke about communism, which his own girlfriend denounces, but is also sent to an army punishment unit and then tortured in mining for several years. Years later, he accidentally meets the wife of the former friend who had shamefully betrayed him. He decides to seduce her out of revenge, which he succeeds in doing but ultimately backfires.
The basic tenor of the film is summed up well by a statement from director Jireš: "Žert is a film about unhappy victims with memories and happy perpetrators who have lost their memories." The film had been in the vault since 1971 and was not shown again until 1990.
The novel by Kundera, who co-wrote the screenplay, is partly based on his own experiences: He experienced expulsion from the party himself for a trifle after making 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. Žert impressively demonstrates that enthusiasm for Stalinism, which was blinded to the point of conscience, and the consequences for the victims of that time. The impossibility of satisfaction for the victims for the suffering inflicted on them becomes tangible. Kundera's own role in this context is highly controversial.