Moravian Hellas

Karel Vachek’s graduate film is a documentary essay that blends a light-hearted and aggressive tone with a parody of investigative film journalism. The Strážnice folk festival, supported by the cultural Party apparatus of the time, had long struggled to connect with authentic folklore. In the film, the event is portrayed as a bizarre stage spectacle with surrealistic elements, which Vachek enhances through unconventional techniques such as on-screen title commentary, singing, camera-directed declamations, feature etudes, and the merging of news coverage with fiction. The resulting film collage features a range of characters, including crowd-pleasers, Easter egg decorators, kitsch artists, peddlers, museologists, and local residents, all encountering the eccentric twin reporters Karel and Jan Saudek and a bored actress serving as an extra. Through their ironic and witty approach, the film reveals a poignant truth.