Theatrical Premiere: February 16, 2009, 20:00 / Kino Světozoz
SHORT LONG JOURNEY (Krátká, dlouhá cesta)
Czech Republic 2009, 83 min
Directed by: Martin Hanzlíček
Producer: Fedor Gál, Jarmila Poláková – Film & Sociologie
Script: Fedor Gál, Martin Hanzlíček
Director of photography: Richard Krivda
Sound: Peter Zubál, Václav Vondráček, Miloš Brunclík
Music: Marian Varga
Format: Betacam digi, DVD
“I have never seen my father…”, wrote Fedor Gál in his narration entitled “Fragments”. He also writes that not only did he never see his father but he never found out what happened to him. He thought he was buried somewhere in a mass grave at a German extermination camp. It was not until 1994, at the funeral of his mother, that Zoltán Lenský disclosed the fact that he had been with Vojtěch Gál during the last stage of his life on a death march from Sachsenhausen. He was also able to state how Fedor’s father died – Vojtěch was shot when, utterly exhausted, he was unable to go any further. Zoltán Lenský never had the strength to relate this story to Barbora Gálová, even though they knew each other and even lived in the same city. Now he told it to her sons. And this knowledge ignited a need to find their father’s grave.
Our historical experience shows us how easy it is to unleash the demon of hatred, and how easy it is to corrupt the basic functions of a human community – one concrete defined group, or an entire group of inhabitants - until it leads to its destruction. The most primitive form of cruelty is able to find its way into people who not long ago were experiencing a happy and harmonious period of mutual coexistence. It only takes a little and suddenly people are burning down each others’ homes and murdering their neighbours. Unfortunately, people often murder one another in an endless cycle. It is a terrible fact that, even in the 21st century, there is mass hatred, people being driven out, massacres, refugee camps… and this is happening on our own European continent. These are the reasons why this project has been created.
For more information please visit www.kratkadlouhacesta.cz (in Czech, English and German).