World premiere of Tomáš Svoboda’s KINETOPSIA at the IFF JiHlava in the Czech Joy section!
The term kinetopsia refers to a disorder which makes us think that stationary objects are in motion. The title thus presents a metaphor for our situation: the Revolution took place more than three decades ago, and while an uncertain present brings ever new problems, public discussion still often chases after the “spectre of communism” – a universal, abstracted evil, always blameworthy and constantly threatening to return. Its shadow makes it easier to miss the real challenges of today, as well as critical aspects of the political transformation that has wrought our economic and cultural conditions.
The project thus hyperbolically takes on the “90s” businessman and gangster icon Ivan Jonák, in whom the often overlooked (personal) continuity of (pre)revolutionary and post-revolutionary events is well demonstrated. However, it approaches the topic in an entertaining, almost thriller-style fashion. For the young protagonists, already born into a free state and dealing with quite different problems, Jonák’s story becomes a detective case to untangle. Their final, surreal clash with the former revolutionary generation “fighting the communists,” in the ruins of what was Discoland, thus stands as a symbolic encounter with an isolated worldview that remains, while clearly absurd, one we have yet to confront.
The failure to identify the real culprits of many problems is not limited to Czech Republic but applies to a number of post-socialist countries where their own “Jonáks”, acting under the guise of revolution, have managed to enrich themselves at the expense of others, often finding comfortable posts in the emerging system. The need to rethink the black-and-white perspective of our (post-)revolutionary history thus extends far beyond Discoland, and without such a negotiation we can hardly expect to address the current issues at stake.
Text Noemi Purkrábková
