MANILA -- Life during the communist era in East and Central Europe will be shown on the big screen as the three-day Czech Film Festival in Manila features the fall of the Berlin Wall that led to the breakdown of the communist regime in the region.
"We hope that thanks to the 'Iron Curtain Film Festival', we can help (the) Filipino audience understand better the history of (the) 20th century and appreciate the freedom that we have as democratic nations,” said Czech Ambassador Jana Šedivá on Tuesday as she promoted the film festival from August 22 to 24 at the University of the Philippines Film Institute (UPFI).
Šedivá, who will expound more about Czechoslovakia and the communist regime, shared that she herself had personally witnessed the democratic transition of her country.
“I have experienced both the Communist era and our country´s transition to democracy. In 1989, people were united in their desire to break with the past and see the end of communism, full of hardships and oppression of freedom," she said.
The term Iron Curtain is a metaphorical description of the imaginary boundary that divided Europe into two areas from the end of World War II in 1945 to the end of the Cold War in 1991.
It became more tangible as the Berlin Wall was put up in August 1961, serving as a visible reminder of the divide between the Communist East and the Democratic West.
The fall of the Berlin Wall that divided East and West Germany or the non-violent protests in then Czechoslovakia, known as the Velvet Revolution, brought an end to communist totalitarian regimes and began the ascension towards democracy.
In commemoration of these historical events, the Czech Embassy in Manila and the Goethe Institut, in partnership with the UPFI, will be showing films that tackle life during that time.
For the duration of the event -- free but subject to first-come, first-served basis -- three Czech films and two German films that tackle communism and the life in it will be shown. (PR)
