The Art of Dissent

‘THE RESISTANCE WAS DOWN, BUT NOT OUT ...
... An underground army of writers, academics, musicians and other intellectuals kept it going, led by the internationally renowned playwright Václav Havel.’ (The Boston Globe)

THE ART OF DISSENT celebrates the power of artistic engagement in Czechoslovakia before and after the Soviet-led invasion of 1968. The documentary's main characters - Václav Havel, the banned singer Marta Kubišová and the underground rock group The Plastic People of the Universe - became the best-known dissidents of the 1970s and 1980s. Havel merged literary, political, philosophical and rock'n'roll worlds into a hybrid network that ultimately brought down the totalitarian regime. Rare historical archive material meets current interviews and results in a captivating interplay that shows how present the past still is when it comes to building and strengthening a civil society. (red)