Czech Film Center

Synopsis

In their documentary Citizen Havel Is Rolling Barrels, the filmmakers Jan Novak and Adam Novak go back
into the past in order to render the genesis of Vaclav Havel’s famous one-act play Audience. At the same
time, they introduce the viewer to the paradoxes of the odd world of the Czechoslovak “normalization”
period. In 1974, Václav Havel was a playwright in danger of being declared a “social parasite” by the neo-
Stalinist regime of Gustav Husák. His plays had been banned and, in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic
of that time, you could go to prison if your Citizen Identification passport lacked a stamp in the employment
box. Havel solved the problem by finding a job as a brewery hand. For nearly a year, he rolled barrels in
the basement of a regional brewery in Trutnov, and the experience profoundly changed his writing. The
documentary shows the world of the brewery as well as Havel’s former coworkers who had inspired
Audience. It also maps out the circumstances of a clandestine recording of the play, featuring Havel and
Pavel Landovsky, which quickly resonated through all of society and bore strange fruit – for example, the
biggest Czech film star in those days, Jirina Bohdalova, had a doctor friend of hers cut her lip so that she
would not have to denounce Havel on television... The film also presents an abridged version of the play
itself in the form of a collage woven from archival strands, the famous audio rendering of the piece by
Havel and Landovsky, photographs and various performances of the Audience from around the world.