Czech New Wave

Following the Second World War, Czechoslovakia began to gain international recognition, when director Karel Stekly was awarded the Venice Grand Prix of 1947, for his film 'Sirena'. Within the 1950's Czechoslovakian cinema predominantly consisted of animated and puppet films, from the likes of Jiri Trnka and Karel Zeman. Therefore, the industry was relatively limited to only a certain, specialised area of filmmaking (HAMES, 2005).

The abrupt, rebellious flowering of cinematic accomplishment in the Czechoslovakia of the 1960's, was described at the time, as the 'Czech Film Miracle'. If the term ‘miracle’ referred here to the very existence of that audacious new cinema, it could perhaps also be applied to much of its content: the miraculous and marvellous are integral to the revelations of Surrealism, a movement that claimed the attention of numerous 1960s filmmakers. (OWEN, 2011)

The official social realist system encouraged the production of grossly distorted representations of actual life and actual history (HAMES 2005). Although a majority of films within the movement were swathed in a shroud of surrealism, the underlying essence was ultimately an opportunity to depict the realities of a communist regime. The symbolic elements were carefully depicted in an artistic manner, in an attempt to inconspicuously target those in power. As a result of these indirect illustrations, the productions went unnoticed during the peak of the movement, hence nurturing a counterculture. It wasn't until the depths of the new wave had been reached that the motives of the films were realised and were banned.

Reference List:
OWEN, J L. (2011) Avant-Garde to New Wave: Czechoslovak Cinema, Surrealism and the Sixties. New York: Berghahn Books.

HAMES, P. (2005) The Czechoslovak New Wave. Second Edition. London: Wallflower Press.

http://www.kinema.uwaterloo.ca/article.php?id=494&feature