Four Velvet Men Then and Now - Martin Mejstřík
Evoluce 4 z revoluce - Martin Mejstřík
Jan Šikl, Pavel Koutecký / Czech Republic / 2010 / 57 min.
Twenty years ago, filmmaker Pavel Koutecký began following the stories of four people who actively took part in Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution: musician Michael Kocáb, dissident Jan Ruml and students Kryštof Rímský and Martin Mejstřík. After Koutecký's death, the project was taken on by Jan Šikl. These four films, made over an extremely long period, recapitulate the protagonists' ups and downs, and allow the viewer to reflect with them on the developments Czech society has gone through during the last two decades. The part about Martin Mejstřík can be summed up by the phrase "sometimes you're up, sometimes you're down." Through circumstances and his own decisions, Mejstřík occasionally finds himself at the heart of social affairs, while in other moments he goes through difficult times personally. This is the story of an obstinate activist forever dogged by internal doubts who tries out roles as varied as journalist, gardener, janitor and senator. So far, it doesn't have a happy ending.