KINO FOTOGRAFIC: BLACK CZECHS

Tuesday, September 3 from 7 p.m + discussion
CZ, 2022, 71 min
Czech, English subtitles
Directed by: Martin Müller
entrance fee is voluntary

We cordially invite you to the accompanying program for the exhibition Transient Ties by Michaela Nagyidaiová. On Tuesday, September 3, from 7 p.m., the Fotografic Gallery will host a screening of the documentary film Black Czechs, which outlines the issue of shaping national identity through the incredible story of manipulation.

In the 1980s, 56 Namibian children were raised in socialist Czechoslovakia. The special educational program of the Namibian liberation movement SWAPO and the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia aimed to raise children into a new generation of politically aware elite. This political experiment failed in the early 1990s due to fundamental political changes in both countries. The children were forcibly resettled to Namibia, unable to culturally adapt – without completing basic education and without any language and psychological preparation. The filmmakers searched for traces of now-adult Namibian children and followed their fates both in Namibia and in the Czech Republic for three years. To this day, black Czechs remain trapped in the memories of their idyllic childhood in Czechoslovakia, which they consider their true home. More information about the movie: www.cernicesi.cz

The evening will also include a discussion with director Martin Müller and author Kateřina Mildnerová. The screening will take place as part of the accompanying program to the exhibition Transient Ties by Michaela Nagyidaiová, which thematizes the issues of family ties, migration, roots and the formation of national identity based on the specific story of the artist’s grandmother, who was forced to flee from Greece to what was then Czechoslovakia as a child. More information about the exhibition: zde.