I Am in the Garden

A stylized reconstruction of a half-century-old cycling tour of the main protagonist Mrs. Věra Pavlovcová. A bizarre portrait of an aging woman, a daughter of political prisoner, imprisoned and tortured by the former Czechoslovak communist regime in 1950’s, who sets out on journey to visit her father in Valdice prison. On the way through scrubby family garden with its glasshouse, through region at the foothill of Krkonoše Mountains with stops at the graveyard and athletic stadium, ghost of the past – including Klement Gottwald (the first Czechoslovak working-class president), his wife Marta and granddaughter Batul – are appearing. As a matter of form, it is an attempt to knot together a dialogue between contemporary digital pictures and archive film newsreels, still present in our memory …

PRESS RELEASE:

Producer Zuzana Daržilová turned to me as a FAMU student with an offer to work on a film dealing with issues of political prisoners daughters of 50. I was given an opportunity to get to know several women who lived through this period. I did not have to give it a lot of thought ato chose Mrs. Věra Pavlovcová. It was because of her sense of tragicomic genre, her sensitivity to nature and home embodied in her garden, as well as her theatrical talent and self-reflection in front of the camera. Although typical to some extent, her story is approached from a highly individual point of view.

INFORMATION ABOUT THE DAUGHTER:

Mrs. Věra was born in 1936 in Nová Paka into a family of gardener and dressmaker. As a member of Milada Horáková’s sub-group her father was sentenced in a show trial for high treason and for backing illegal activities to 12 years imprisonment, confiscation of all property and a fine of 20 thousand Czech Crowns. After the family appealed, the penalty was abridged to 8 years and her dad was conditionally released in 1953. It was also thanks to the father’s imprisonment that Mrs. Věra’s mum grew old prematurely and died at the age of 56 of cancer. Dad whose physical as well as psychological condition was undermined by years of imprisonment died after simple chirurgical operation in 1988. Mrs. Věra trained to be a mechanic and later graduated from engineering school with specialization in power engineering in Jičín. She is retired now and lives alternately with her husband in Hradec Králové and in her native town where she is engaged as a minute taker in the activities of branch number 41. of Political Prisoners Association. She has three children, all of whom successfully completed university, and seven gifted grandchildren.