''A Trial in Prague'' is an 83 min colour documentary film directed by

Zuzana Justman Zuzana Justman, born Zuzana Pick (born 20 June 1931), is a Czech-American maker of documentary films and writer. She was born in former Czechoslovakia, which she left in 1948 with her mother after surviving two years at Theresienstadt concentration ...

, about the

Slánský trial The Slánský trial (officially English: "Trial of the Leadership of the Anti-State Conspiracy Centre Headed by Rudolf Slánský") was a 1952 antisemitic show trial against fourteen members of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ), incl ...

, a high-profile

show trial A show trial is a public trial in which the judicial authorities have already determined the guilt or innocence of the defendant. The actual trial has as its only goal the presentation of both the accusation and the verdict to the public so th ...

in 1952 Communist Czechoslovakia.

Content

At the height of the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

, an infamous political show trial, known as the

, took place in Czechoslovakia. In 1952, 14 leading Communists, including Rudolf Slánský, the second most powerful man in the country, were tried on charges of high treason and espionage. Although they were innocent of the charges, they confessed and were convicted. Most of the men were hanged, but three received life sentences. Eleven of the fourteen were Jews. The film tells the story of the trial and the paranoia of the period through testimonies, trial footage, archival films and extensive documentation. Among the people who appear in the film are

Lise London Lise London (15 February 1916 – 31 March 2012) was a French Communist politician and activist. She participated in the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War and the French Resistance during World War II. She was the widow of Artu ...

, whose late husband Artur London was one of the defendants and wrote about the trial in a widely published memoir "The Confession;" Eduard Goldstucker, a Kafka scholar and the first Czech ambassador to Israel who was jailed and forced to testify at the trial; and Jan Kavan, the former Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs, whose father, also a trial witness, died shortly after his release from prison. What led these men to their passionate belief in Communism and why did they publicly confess to crimes they did not commit? The film explores the questions, as well as the role of Moscow, the motives for the trial and its anti-Semitic thrust. It deals with the personal stories of the condemned men and the legacy they left their children, who "feel a need to live out the interrupted lives of their fathers".

Comments

"Sensitive, intelligent & moving … shows the human face of both communism and its victims" - New York Times "Harrowing and enlightening, a tale that even Kafka would find hard to imagine" (Boston Phoenix). "Measured, informative…neatly structured" (Variety). “The film is as compelling for these painful details as for the tough-minded analysis that ties them together.” ( The Village Voice) “Powerful, important and refreshingly straightforward documentary.” (New York Post)

Sources

Slánská, Josefa (1969). ''Report On My Husband''. London: Hutchinson. . London, Artur (1971). ''Confession''. USA: Ballantine Books. . Margolius, Ivan (2006). ''Reflections of Prague: Journeys through the 20th century''. Chichester: Wiley. . Kaplan, Karel (1990). ''Report on the Murder of the General Secretary''. London: I. B. Tauris & Co. . Heda Margolius Kovaly (1997) ''Under a Cruel Star: A life in Prague 1941-1968'' ().

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Trial In Prague 2000 documentary films 2000 films Jews and Judaism in Czechoslovakia Political repression in Czechoslovakia Films set in Czechoslovakia Documentary films about antisemitism Films critical of communism Films directed by Zuzana Justman Documentary films about historical events