Tomáš Pilát and Šárka Švábová have prepared a cycle in which they discuss his position on the occasion of the late 80th birthday of the singer, poet, rebel and activist Karel Kryl. The authors spoke with a number of Kryl’s friends, witnesses and experts, and thus composed a mosaic of unique memories and evaluations of his work.
Among those who comment on Karel Kryl’s personality are, for example, journalist and writer Karel Hvížďala, Kryl’s biographer Vojtěch Klimt, friend and musician Zbyněk Benýšek, historian Jakub Šlouf, bandleader Jan Tomsa or publicist, musician and poet Michal Bystrov. They all highlight Karel Kryl’s invention, ability to communicate with listeners and highly developed observational talent. The artistic and appealing level of his work. He also talks about his uncompromising nature, which caused him to fall out of favor with a large part of society after November 1989.
Karel Kryl|photo: Václav Jirsa, Law / Profimedia
However, Krylo’s ideas and attitudes are still relevant according to the guests of the cycle. “You can’t buy democracy, you have to build it again and again every day. It is not enough to just overthrow the leadership of the Communist Party. You also have to become a democrat internally,” said Karel Kryl, and the Vltava cycle reminds us of this.
