Czecho/Slovakia

Who Are the Czechs III: Worthy Wimps

In 1998, a heated dispute erupted between Petra Hanáková and Jaromír Blažejovský in Brno’s culture magazine Tamto. It revolved around the so-called wimpish tendency in current Czech films. Hanáková criticized the self-absorbed, authorial movies, Blažejovský stood up for their idiosyncrasy, beauty and transcendence. However, most of these films sank into oblivion, even those made by the renowned directors. Our aim is to pick them up, revise the whole dispute and trace the dominant traits of our national character.