For My Dad
Mirka’s father was imprisoned for 15 years because of his activities in the 1950s. What is the burden that a child, present at the arrest of his own father and labeled a traitor must bear? Valuable family archives enrich an originality of this documentary.
Documentary “For My Dad” is a story of a woman, whose Dad was in 1950’s sentenced for his political activities to 25 years of imprisonment. What is the life of a child growing up in a rotten society of communist regime like? What is the burden a child present at the arrest of her own father and labeled traitor of a nation has to bear? Mrs. Bočková asks herself if she should revenge or forget about the past and go on with her life as if nothing had happened. However, to live to tell the story and warn future generations is Mrs. Bočková’s life mission. It is because fear and worries about her family are still part of her life.
PRESS RELEASE:
In 2009 we started working on the project ”Children of Stalinism” that allowed us to make a documentary ”For My Dad”. For Mrs Bočková it was a chance to cope with her own past affected by absence of her father she did not know properly, for us it was a chance to get acquainted with the era of 50’s and to understand better how generation of our parents coped with this difficult era of our history marked by communist crimes. We were interested in what concepts such as justice and revenge mean for Mrs. Bočková what is her take on the post-socialist era and if she thinks that we have done enough to make even with the past. In the end, we were interested more in her personal experience than in general historical context. Last but not at least, working on the project was for us as fresh graduates of FAMU a great chance to make a documentary produced by Czech TV.
INFORMATION ABOUT THE DAUGHTER:
Mrs. Bočková was only 4 years old, when she was present at the arrest of her father in her own home. For next 15 years she used to see him only at the visits in communist prisons. These were allowed only once a year, at the most. Mrs. Bočková is nevertheless full of energy and always smiling. What struck us most about her life was the fact that she still lives in the same house, in the same village her father was arrested and in spite of all that happened there succeeded in making it harmonious home for her present family. She could not fulfill her dreams but she hopes her children and grandchildren will.