Vera Chytilova's Letter to President Husak (1975) - Movies - http://maxpages.com/czechcinema/From_Vera_to_the

Dear Comrade President:

I am turning to you since I can see no other way out. All my efforts to find work have been in vain and I put my last hope in your sense of justice.
I am a film director. When I entered the film industry 21 years ago as a clapper girl at the Barrandov Film Studios I became so interested in the medium that I took the entrance exam to the Film Faculty and enrolled for study at the age of 27. I graduated with honours and returned to Barrandov.
I have made five films in all: "The Ceiling", "A Sackful of Fleas", "Something Completely Different", "Daisies" and "We Eat the Fruit of Paradise". Allow me to describe them briefly.
"The Ceiling" was my graduation piece at the faculty; in it I tried to make the viewer reflect on 'the ceiling' of human possibilities, on how we very often, whether through apathy or cowardice, lack the courage to make greater demands on ourselves and to realise that there is still time to make a fresh start.
The documentary "A Sackful of Fleas" dealt with young textile workers, girl apprentices, and drew attention to the all-important role of those who are in charge of young people, their teachers and instructors.
In "Something Completely Different" I attempted, by telling the apparently unconnected life-stories of two women, to show the meaning behind human endeavour, to reveal what makes or mars our self-fulfillment.
"Daisies" was a morality play showing how evil does not necessarily manifest itself in an orgy of destruction caused by the war, that its roots may lie concealed in the malicious pranks of everyday life. I chose as my heroines two young girls because it is at this age that one most wants to fulfill oneself and, if left to one's own devices, his or her need to create can easily turn into its very opposite.
In my last film, "We Eat the Fruit of Paradise", I returned to the subject of the relationship between a man and a woman, the problem of discovering the truth behind this relationship and the strength to live with this truth.
Since I finished this film in 1970 I have not been allowed to work on any of my screenplays, despite the fact that some of these had previously been accepted and approved. Their subject-matter varied, but they were all in keeping with the needs of our film industry. They include screenplays for a children's film, a musical, a comedy thriller, a scenario for the Magic Lantern theatre, and above all, an engage screenplay for a film about (the 19th century novelist)Bozena Nemcova and another called "The Apple Game", which dealt with the population problem and which I had intended to make for International Women's Year.
All these screenplays suffered roughly the same fate: they were accepted and then shelved on various contradictory pretexts, from which it is apparent that the main aim is to prevent me from finishing any single film and thus being able to refute the allegations that I 'lack a positive attitude to socialism'. The screenplay of the film about the life and work of Bozena Nemcova, was first of all approved and then dropped, the reason given being that the film 'might destroy the viewers' illusions about Bozena Nemcova.'
"The Apple Game", which was to treat the problem of responsible parenthood, unnecessary abortions, and the moral as well as material aspects of female equality in our society, was recommended for shooting in February 1974 in a letter sent to the Chief Story Editor, comrade Toman, by his colleagues, in which they said '...We believe that, in all its complexity, the submitted screenplay is one of the most important attempts to date to create a truly contemporary film with genuine human interest. It will help to fill a considerable gap in our production'. In October the Managing Director, Dr. Purs, gave the go-ahead for the film to be made, but the studio management refused to inform me about this. This serves as an apt illustration of my position. For five years now I have gone from one head of the film industry to another, they all tell me that I can work and urge me to say as much to foreign journalists. When my Soviet friends, the director Gerasimov and the actress Makarova, wanted to meet me, they were told I was working in Slovakia. Yugoslav film makers who were interested in working with me were informed that I was too busy working at home.
The same reason was given when they turned down an invitation for me to take part in the First World Festival of Women Film Directors in New York, which opened with a showing of my film, "Something Completely Different". The State Film likewise refused invitations for me to the opening of the new French 'cinematheque', under the auspices of the French Minister of Culture, and my participation in last year's European festival of women film directors in Paris. It was only during the visit of several leading representatives of UNESCO to Prague a few weeks ago that I learned that yet another invitation, to the film symposium 'Women in Films' held in Italy in July as part of International Women's Year, was also turned down. Nor was I allowed to take part in another women's film festival held in September 1975 in Caracas, Director Fabera explaining this by saying that the Party organisation at Barrandov was against my going. Such word-of-mouth refusals are only too typical.
However, there are also written documents, in particular the 'complex assessment' which I underwent this year.
This was meant to sum up the conclusions reached in the course of my political 'screenings' in 1972, the year when the Studio was recommended to go ahead with my film about Bozena Nemcova. This was never mentioned in the assessment, which also said nothing about the existence of the screenplays I had submitted for approval. The conclusion it came to was that my contract with the studios should be terminated. It said that I had done no work for five years, that my films were experimental by nature, uncommitted and pessimistic, that I had contacts with people connected with National Artists Jiri Trnka and Jan Werich, that my international prizes came chiefly from western festivals, that I had presided at the Mannheim Festival, had adopted an elitist stance, that I had had a minimum of audience response, that my films had been overvalued by the critics, and that it 'did not appear' that I had 'understood the contemporary cultural policy of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia'.
I refused to accept criticism on these lines. No one has yet condemned experiments, indeed, at a conference in October 1972 you, comrade President, yourself emphasized the artist's right to experiment. My films are not unrealistic - they are realistic. All of them are 'engage' and therefore cannot be uncommitted. My explanation of their meaning and intent, which I have made several times, has not been refuted. Contacts with National Artists can hardly give grounds for being sacked. My films are appreciated not only in the West, they also won prizes in socialist countries.
Apart frm this, however, if we are to accept the arguments of Chief Story Editor Toman, it would make nonsense of our participation in western film festivals, since a socialist film maker who had made his film as an employee of the nationalised film industry would by his success, having gained a prize for a socialist country, risk persecution at home. Such attitudes are particularly to be deplored at a time of increased efforts at peaceful coexistence, which presupposes a wealth of cultural exchange, and when the requirements of quality in works of art are constantly increasing.
The latest statistical yearbook on Czechoslovak films shows that, although they were only screened in cinemas catering for movie connoisseurs, my films drew larger audiences, on average, than present-day Czech pictures. And in any case, if my work was not in keeping with socialist requirements, other socialist countries would hardly seek my collaboration and my films would not be shown there and in this country, as is still the case. As regards my attitude to contemporary life, the accusations made against me are false - I have submitted a number of 'engage' screenplays, some of which have been approved for filming, but not a single one has been produced.
I do not wish to burden you with too many details of the discussion which followed comrade Toman's reading of the 'complex assessment' and the proposal that the film studios terminate my contract. I rejected this and said that I could not understand how such a suggestion could have been made in the first place. When I tried to reply to the questions put to me by members of the commission, when I asked one of its woman members who had condemned my films to tell me of at least one anti-socialist idea from any of my pictures and she was unable to do so - she had obviously not seen them - the chairman of the Party organisation, comrade Leiter, admonished me, saying that they alone would talk and I was just to sit and listen. I did not know the Party code, he told me, and was unable to think in Marxist and Leninist terms. One of the woman members offered me, as a mother of two children, work other than that of a film director. I could not see why and pointed out that I had trained as a film director and had five films to show for it. She said that I had by now forgotten how to make films and had to learn anew. 'How am I to do that?' I asked. 'Perhaps as a clapper girl on a film shot from one of my approved screenplays?' They said I had a bad attitude to work and that I was distorting their words.
Director Fabera was then called in and he reproached me for being impatient. He said I could start shooting next week if only I behaved humbly and kept quiet. This was an astonishing statement, seeing that a written proposal to dismiss me was lying on the table and an oral suggestion had just been made that I accept some other work. All this showed that they were prejudiced, I told comrade Fabera, and he himself had warned me about it: 'You don't know how to deal with people and that's something a film director can't afford,' he said, and that was that. I told the commission that it was all quite simple. All they had to do was to accuse me of something and when I tried to defend myself, they became upset and indignant, this proving that I didn't know how to deal with people. And if you didn't know how to deal with people you couldn't be a film director. The real problem, however, lay elsewhere. I was a female film director. But I was also a mother and a citizen of a socialist country and as such was aware of my rights and would always fight for them. I would not accept dismissal from my job for no valid reason, because this was contrary to the spirit of socialist ideals. The chairman of the Party organisation, comrade Leiter, then said: 'There are times when the Party has the right to do anything.' Someone sitting next to him added: 'And not even a thousand Purs's and Klusaks will help her.' After a short silence comrade Leiter asked them to vote whether they should continue in my absence. Everyone agreed, except me. Before I left I reminded them that recently comrade Leiter had said to me: 'The worst of it is, comrade Chytilova, that we have nothing against you.' That would seem to be the case.
I have written all this before to the Minister of Culture, Dr. Milan Klusak, in letters dated May 1974 and July 1975. I did not receive any reply to my first letter, the second was answered by someone (signature illegible) on behalf of the Minister's chief secretary, comrade Lumir Polivka. My letter had been passed to the Managing Director of Czechoslovak Films, Dr. J. Purs, and so had my earlier communication. I can thus only repeat some of the conclusions in my second letter:
'I regret that I have to tell you that I am still the victim of unfair discrimination, even though there is not the slightest justification for this because it is clear that all the opposition to me is based on a mixture of false assumption, personal hostility, and male chauvinism.
'I hope you will not permit it to become a shameful fact that in a country which boasts of its socialist ideals a woman film director whose films have brought international recognition to its socialist cinema and who is the mother of two children is unjustly persecuted and deprived of work and of the opportunity to meet her colleagues at the very time when we are celebrating International Women's Year.'
Since July, when I wrote this letter to the Minister of Culture, nothing has changed. Recently an offer was made that I shoot my full-length film, "The Apple Game", in the Short Film Studios. I have no objection to this, especially since the management of the latter has been cooperative and agrees with this suggestion. However, the old problem has cropped up again in a new guise - in order to do a full-length feature film, the Short Film Studios have first to get the necessary financial backing from the feature film people, and there is a shortage of film material.
I have never wished to work abroad; I consequently refused a number of offers because I wanted to work at home, and still do. In 1970 I attended the Cannes Film Festival and came back. Yet I have since experienced absurd situations when I would be refused permission even for a private visit to a socialist country on the grounds that 'from there you can also escape abroad'. I have decisively rejected an offer of emigration. Perhaps this was meant kindly in the knowledge that I am not allowed to make films, nor to produce stage plays - this my employers, in the person of comrade Toman, explained by saying that a film employee is only allowed to do one play, although I am prevented from doing any at all - and, since the appointment of Milena Balasova I cannot work even in television.
What then am I to do? What am I to say to my friends, both at home and abroad? Why have I not made any films? How am I to defend my attitude to socialism when I cannot demonstrate it in my own field? And all this at a time when the whole world is celebrating International Women's Year, to which I wished to contribute with my work; at a time when the signature on the Helsinki documents open up new avenues of cultural cooperation and demand a constant increase in contacts with foreign colleagues, many of whom are sympathetic to socialism and progress; and at a time when the strength of socialist culture needs to be shown, above all, by creative work.
How am I to reply to the latest invitation, to the Festival of Women's Films to be held in the Washington Kennedy Centre from 1 to 7 December 1975?
I am turning to you, comrade President, in the hope and trust that you will look into my case, and other similar ones, and will see to it that justice is done.
As a citizen, a woman, a mother and a film director, I will continue to fight for the ideals of a socialist society and will do my utmost to bring about their realisation.

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