Documentary Mondays: Program returns to Czech Center in Bucharest next week

Four documentaries on topics such as identity, memory, responsibility, and courage will be screened at the Czech Center in Bucharest as part of the upcoming edition of the Documentary Mondays program.

The program opens on February 23 with Simona Constantin’s Caliu. Nothing else, what more could I do?, a portrait of fiddler Gheorghe "Caliu" Anghel, nicknamed the ‘Violin King.’ Traveling back and forth between present struggles and the old, golden days, music is the only constant in Caliu's life, as captured in a story that features a surprise appearance by Johnny Depp. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the film’s crew.

Marie-Magdalena Kochová’s The Other One is scheduled for March 2. Eighteen-year-old Johana plans to leave her hometown for her university studies, but her senior high school year is shaped by the caretaker role she needs to undertake for her younger sister. A coming-of-age documentary about responsibility, sisterhood, and loving not only others, but also oneself.

Change My Mind by Robin Kvapil is scheduled for March 9. Over fifty years after the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia, three Czechs set off for Ukraine to see with their own eyes the Russian aggression, which they consider "an absurdity" in this road movie about confronting personal beliefs with the reality of war.

This edition ends on March 16 with the screening of Jakub Motejzík’s Tender Hrabal, a film built around recently discovered recordings of the conferences of Bohumil Hrabal. The film allows the writer’s voice to be heard again as Hrabal speaks to students in Kersko, and to parishioners at the Protestant rectory in Libice.

Entry to the screenings is free, within the available seating. The films are screened with English subtitles.

(Illustration: Czech Center)