The last farewell to the Slovak director Juraj Jakubisko, who died on Friday, February 24 in Prague, took place in Prague’s St. Vitus Cathedral on Saturday afternoon. He was 84 years old. The ceremony was for invitees only, the public could not enter the temple. Family friend and ex-president Václav Klaus was also among those invited, who gave a eulogy. He arrived with his wife Livia. Cardinal Dominik Duka celebrated the mass.
Representatives of Czech and Slovak culture were present. Among the first came the director and cinematographer FA Brabec, who collaborated with Jakubisko on his film Bathory. According to Brabec, Jakubisko’s visionaryness and insight and his ability to look at the world through different eyes will now be missed. “I think we are all very ‘down to earth’ here. Few people have succeeded in what he has. He was able to poeticize the real world in such a way that it was much more interesting and creative,” Brabec said upon arriving at the mass.
Inside the cathedral, a photo of Jakubisk and a wreath were placed at the altar, among them, for example, from Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová, the Czech Ministry of Culture, and Slovak and Czech filmmakers. The wreath from the family was shaped like a movie camera. On five small screens before the start of the funeral ceremony, excerpts from Jakubisk’s films were played, and the song My God performed by Katarína Knechtová from his film Bathory sounded through the church.
After the mass, the former president Klaus took the floor, who was asked by Jakubisko’s wife Deana Horváthová to give a eulogy. He stated in front of the mourners that although he knew about Jakubiska’s health problems, the news of his death surprised him. According to him, many present shared the director’s difficult decade.
His life hung in the balance several times, but he was still happy about his new heart (in May 2012, Jakubisko underwent a heart transplant at the Institute of Clinical and Experimental Medicine in Prague), said the former president. Even though we knew his condition was serious, we still tricked ourselves that he was immortal like his films, he stated. In his eulogy, he characterized Jakubiska as a great person, a wonderful director and a good friend.
According to him, Jakubisko moved freely in space and time, which is why he reached into history in his films, and discovered things, events and personalities for the audience that they did not know or had no idea about. “Juraj, we will not forget you,” the former president concluded his eulogy.
At the end of the ceremony, the coffin was carried out of the temple to the sound of a piece from Jakubiska’s fairy tale Perinbaba. The public watched as she was loaded into a parked car in front of the cathedral.
Due to the funeral service, the entrance to the cathedral was closed to the public approximately two hours before its start, at 11:40. Foreigners who wanted to see the temple at that time were surprised that they could not get inside. Not even a group of Jakubiska fans who came from Slovakia got inside. They were very disappointed, they said.
Jakubisko was one of the most famous Slovak artists and was nicknamed the “Slovak Fellini” or the “Fellini of the East”. During his career, he made several dozen feature films and documentaries. His best-known works include The Thousand-Year-Old Bee, Perinbaba, Vague News about the End of the World and Bathory. The release date of his latest film Perinbaba and Two Worlds has not yet been announced.
