Synopsis

The documentary portrays the life of Václav Havels from birth till death. Certainly with no claim to exhaustive account of all events his life was abundant with, the film highlights some crucial events, main highs and lows on his way. The story first follows a boy from a wealthy family who had to make do with numerous odd-jobs, then shifts to Havels as an uncompromising human rights defender who had been pursued many years by the communist regime. On the other side of the spectrum there is Havels as an artist, who quite early became one of the leading representatives of the Theatre of the Absurd and attained fame as an esteemed intellectual. Needless to say there is also Havel as a politician. In 1989, after the Velvet Revolution he as a voice of his nation made a transition from the enemy to head of state and served as the last president of Czechoslovakia and later as the first president of the Czech Republic. The movie director Andrea Sedláčková born in Prague currently living in France had scrupulously gone through nearly 600 hours of archive recordings, including those never exhibited before. This emotional, saturated, and atmospheric work shows Havel as a visionary, a hero and a role model who is praised not only in his homeland but also in the whole world. A well done homage to a great European leader.