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The Power of the Powerless Protector (Protektor)
CZECH REPUBLIC / USA
In this inspiring documentary, Emmy Award–winning director Cory
CZECH REPUBLIC
In Protector, writer/director and Czech Lion winner Marek Najbrt
Director: Cory Taylor Taylor addresses the dark side of Czechoslovakia’s history and poses an Director: Marek Najbrt observes a couple suddenly divided along wartime lines to pose the
Producers: Darin Nellis, Jonathan Terra urgent question to its youth: why do young people here know so little Producers: Milan Kuchynka,
question, “Who would you betray to save the one you love?” Hana, an
Screenwriter: Cory Taylor
of their country’s haunting past?
Pavel Strnad
actress, has just been given the role of a lifetime. The ensuing fanfare
Cinematographer: Cory Taylor
Screenwriters: Marek Najbrt, makes her husband Emil jealous. A radio reporter, he does not cope well
Editor: Cory Taylor
Narrated by Academy Award–winning actor Jeremy Irons, The Power
Robert Geisier, Benjamin Tucek
with her greater success. But when the Germans invade Czechoslovakia
MS: A to Z
of the Powerless serves as both a history lesson and a primer on human
Cinematographer: Miloslav Holman
in 1938, Hana is forced her to give up the theater and her dreams due
MS: A to Z
il
2009 / color, b&w / 78 min.
rights advocacy, as interviews with former student organizers, dissi- Editor: Pavel Hrdllcka to her Jewish heritage. She falls out of the limelight and into obscurity.
il
dents, and playwright/former president Václav Havel recreate the Velvet Cast: Matthias Brandt, Jan Budar, Meanwhile, Emil’s career takes the opposite path as the Nazis recognize
E F
Revolution of 1989. But it is worth noting that the documentary we see
Marek Daniel, Cyril Drozda,
his on-air talents and make him the voice of their propaganda. Emil has
E F
h
Tomás Mechácek
h
T CorY TaYLor
is not the one Taylor intended to make; it was only in conversation with agreed to collaborate with the enemy in the guise of protecting Hana –
T
Cory Taylor has over 15 years of the college students whose perspectives he planned to incorporate that
2009 / color / 98 min.
but he now controls her every move.
experience writing, editing, producing,
he realized they didn’t really have any – that they were not only unfamil-
and directing in the documentary
iar with but not much interested in what happened two decades ago. As his bargain with the Nazis undermines his self-respect, so his mar-
field. He won the Emmy for Sound
Thus he built the film as it stands on his own shattered assumptions. riage continues to deteriorate. But things are about to get much worse.
Editing for the 1998 television special
MarEK naJBrT
Avalanche: The White Death. His
Late for work one morning, Emil steals a bicycle he finds on the street.
Marek Najbrt was educated in Prague,
feature-length films have garnered
Opening scenes of a peaceful Prague belie forty years of turmoil
earning a degree in social sciences
Unbeknownst to him, someone has just attempted to assassinate the
much attention, including A Quiet under a harsh Communist regime. When the Soviet military occupied
at Charles University and studying
Third Reich Deputy Protector Reinhard Heydrich – and escaped on just
Revolution, which was narrated by
Czechoslovakia, personal freedoms disappeared and fear spread documentary film at the Film and such a bicycle. Formerly in the Nazis’ favor, Emil becomes a suspect – and
Meryl Streep and screened in over 50
throughout the country. The tyranny ended only when the Czech
Television School at the Academy of
the couple is now in more danger than ever.
countries at both UN-sponsored events
Performing Arts (FAMU). Najbrt’s
and film festivals.
people unleashed “the power of the powerless.” Then-activist Havel
background also lies in multimedia; his
(whose own story is told in Citizen Havel, also screening at SDFF 32) and
performative works Balconies (1994)
This smart period drama, as stylish as it is dark, is the Czech Republic’s
Filmography members of the opposition staged a nonviolent coup over the course of
and Seven Dreams Realized have been nominee for Best Foreign Film for the Academy Awards in 2010.
Another Way of Seeing Things (2004)
eleven days. Students organized strikes and took to the streets, soon to staged at the Archa Theater in Prague.
A Quiet Revolution (2002)
be joined by their parents – and the protest movement swelled to astro-
nomical numbers. Historic footage of the nonviolent uprising intensely
Selected Filmography
illustrates the personal accounts thereof.
Champions (2004)
NORTh AMERiCAN pREMiERE
Invention of Beauty (1994)
Taylor dedicates The Power of the Powerless to “those who struggled
In cooperation with: bouncingCzechs.US productions
against the tyranny of the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia.” That
just a few determined souls can change the course of history is a mes-
sage Taylor does not want lost on future generations.
In cooperation with: Sobo 151
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