Gottland

Gottland is a full-length documentary film and a series of documentary episodes based on a bestselling collection of reportages, under the same title, by Mariusz Szczygiel (winner of Nike Literary Award and European Book Prize 2009). Young documentary film makers from renowned Prague Film School FAMU, inspired by the book, take a closer look at the history of post-war Czechoslovakia and Czech Republic, in order to discover new heroes and remind us of the ones that were forgotten or erased from the history. By examining events from the First Czechoslovak Republic and World War II, looking at stories from 50s and 60s and from the period of normalization, they ask about the consequences of those groundbreaking events. Are we always right in distinguishing, which events where the vital ones? In stories that appear familiar, are we always sure to tell, who is the real hero and who is the traitor? —Jakub Zary