Published: June 30, 2019| 11:05 AM

The first film screened within the “Liberated” section, which commemorates the thirtieth anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, was a Czechoslovak drama Time of the Servants from 1989, which earned a Caméra d’Or Special Distinction for the best debut at the Cannes film festival. The directress Irena Pavlásková came to the festival to present this psychological thriller capturing the society at the time of the imminent fall of the communist regime.

Dana, a medical student, has been rejected by her partner. In an attempt to make him jealous, she persuades her best friend to let her temporarily date the best friend’s partner. The story of the timid girl’s transformation into an unscrupulous master of manipulation serves as a fitting critique of social and political decadence. However, Pavlásková notes that rather than criticising the historical period, her film was meant to expose the “evil in humans, which is timeless”. “The totalitarian regime in fact encouraged the evil nature in people, bending and deforming individuals”, concluded the directress, who is currently working on a film adaptation of Philip Roth’s novella The Prague Orgy.

Responding to the questions from the public, Pavlásková described, among others, the arduous censorship procedure she had been forced to go through before 1989 to have the film approved. Even a coincidence helped, as the manipulating Dana reminded the then censor and art director of the Barrandov film studios of his own wife.