First, the documentary filmmaker found 3.5 hours of professionally filmed material from the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. He continued to search where they came from and who was on them, and eventually met a number of other witnesses who had had dusty 1968 film reels at home for years.
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Tanks that destroyed the bridge and sank with it into the river, lined windows, unarmed men threatening the occupiers with their fists. Although the shots are not revolutionary, they have a similar atmosphere as the familiar ones, but they also bear witness to places outside Prague – including Slovakia.
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The film Reconstruction of the Occupation
Foto: Cinepoint
For half a century, their actors have been talking about them with interest, but sadly. Not all traumas are processed, some Soviet occupiers killed relatives, partners, friends. Everyone agrees that then in 1968 the nation reached a kind of moral peak – people behaved differently, were braver, helped each other, forgot about pettiness.
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Unfortunately, it only took a moment, and there was a terrible sobering up in the form of normalization. Some shouted that they would not even give water to the “Russians” and later traded in gasoline, which Soviet soldiers stole in large numbers.
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The film Reconstruction of the Occupation ends with the funeral of student Jan Palach, who set himself on fire in protest against the occupation. The actors of the documentary have a contradictory relationship with it, they do not see much meaning in suicide. It is said that the nation did not wake up. “People have given up,” one of them added.
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Overall rating: 70%
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