Czech Film Center

Synopsis

After the split of Czechoslovakia in 1992, former political dissident, leader of the Velvet Revolution, playwright, and essayist Václav Havel became the first president of a new country, the Czech Republic. Thus it came to pass that a former enemy of the state was actually given the popular mandate to transform that state and its institutions. Such events are not commonplace so, from day one, he permitted his friend, filmmaker Pavel Koutecký, to be with him, to capture as much of it as possible, whether in the Prague Castle or around the world. The result is Citizen Havel, a feature-length documentary of never-before-seen
footage that provides an intimate look at a man thrust into the spotlight of international politics and celebrity, trying to maintain abalance between public and personal life while bringing his nation out of its communist past and into a free, democratic future.