The Unbearable Lightness of Being
A celebrated surgeon torn between his tender bond with a shy photographer and his reckless affair must navigate love and betrayal amid the 1968 Soviet invasion, risking everything to claim true devotion.
“A lovers’ story.”
Synopsis
Tomas, a successful surgeon, leaves Prague for a medical procedure and meets a young photographer named Tereza, whom he brings back with him. Tereza is shocked to discover that Tomas is already involved in an affair with Sabina, a bohemian woman. When the Soviet invasion takes place, the three of them flee to Switzerland. There, Sabina begins a new affair, Tomas continues his pattern of infidelity, and Tereza, feeling disillusioned, returns to Czechoslovakia. Upon realizing his error, Tomas decides to pursue her.
Credits
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How many hands made this film
The scale of the collaboration
A crew of 60+ credited
Why a floor?
This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.
Craft leads on file
Edited by Michael MagillShot by Sven NykvistScored by Mark AdlerDesigned by Pierre Guffroy
Box Office
1988 · Box office
📉 Underperformed — grossed 0.6× its budget
Why 2.5×?
Cinemas keep roughly half of every ticket sold, and a wide release’s marketing often costs about as much again as the film — so a movie needs to gross around 2.5× its production budget just to break even theatrically. It’s a rule of thumb, not the studio’s ledger (home video and streaming come later).
Worldwide gross
$10.0M
Also known as
- Die unerträgliche Leichtigkeit des Seinsde
- La insoportable levedad del seres
- L'Insoutenable Légèreté de l'êtrefr
- L'insostenibile leggerezza dell'essereit
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Cast & Crew
60 unique people credited
Top billed cast
Donald Moffat
as Chief Surgeon
Daniel Olbrychski
as Interior Ministry Official
Stellan Skarsgard
as The Engineer
Daniel Day Lewis
as Tomas
Juliette Binoche
as Tereza
Lena Olin
as Sabina
Derek De Lint
as Franz
Erland Josephson
as The Ambassador
Pavel Landovsky
as Pavel
Tomasz Borkowy
as Jiri
Bruce Myers
as Czech Editor
Pavel Slaby
as Pavel's Nephew
Supporting cast
39Pascale Kalensky
as Nurse Katja
Jacques Ciron
as Swiss Restaurant Manager
Anne Lonnberg
as Swiss Photographer
Laszlo Szabo
as Russian Interrogator
Vladimir Valenta
as Mayor
Clovis Cornillac
as Boy in Bar
Consuelo De Haviland
as Tall Brunette
Leon Lissek
as Bold Man in Bar
Jacqueline Abraham Vernier
Judith Atwell
Claudine Berg
Jean Claude Bouillon
Miroslaw Beuer
Niven Busch
Margot Capelier
Victor Chelkoff
Monica Constandache
Jean Claude Dauphin
as Swiss editor
Dominique De Moncutt
Bernard Lepinaux
Josiane Leveque
Peter Majer
Charles Millot
as Lecturer in Geneva
Gerard Moulevrier
Jan Nemec
as Cameraman filming the tanks in Prague
Charly Oleg
Sylvie Plantard
Olga Baidar Poliakoff
Christine Potter
Hana Maria Pravda
Romano
Andre Sanfratello
Jiri Stanislav
Milos Szoboda
Helenka Vernier
Marrian Walters
Serge Delanoue
as Danseur (uncredited)
Philip Kaufman
as Man walking on street outside Sabina's flat (uncredited)
Isabelle Noerie
as Student (uncredited)
Directors
1Writers
3Producers
1Other crew
6Parents Guide
AI Personalities
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