Four Velvet Men Then and Now (4/4) Kryštof Rímský

Portraits of four people filmed in the course of twenty turbulent years in the post-communist Czech Republic.

Then

Kryštof Rímský, in 1989 a secondary-school pupil and the youngest witness of the brutal police incursion on Národní třída

And now

Kryštof Rímský – student, anarchist, junkie, father. Openhearted rebel.

In 1989, the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia brought the four heroes of the film to the limelight. Since then, the camera has followed them as they pass through unexpected stages in their post-revolutionary lives. Their personal and family dramas intertwined with their public and political engagements offer a colorfoul picture of the last twenty years in the post-communist Czech Republic.

Director Pavel Koutecký worked on the film from 1990 till 2006. There are five documentaries  from this period (After a year, 1990, After a Year and After Another, 1991, After Years, 1994, After Yeras II, 1997, The Solid Point Seekers – A Dozen Years for the Stars of November, 2001. Jan Šikl has been filming since 2008.

The filming was governed by two principles: an open attitude towards everything which fate lays in the hands of the “heroes”, and the filmmakers’ approach – beginning with the selection of the questions and ending with the choice of the film’s means of expression. Above all, however, the filmmakers place emphasis on the paradoxical nature of human existence, the balance between the humorous and the serious, the deliberate exclusion of explicit testimonies of so-called important themes, on playfulness and joy of the picturesque; the project also shows a clear attempt to find authentic essential feelings below the surface, behind the exhibition presented for the camera. The directors use animation in the film which gives it another dimension and dynamism.

The film was made with the financial support of the State fund of the Czech Republic for the support and development of Czech cinematography.

© Film & Sociology, Czech Television