Dušan Hanák

Overview

Already during his studies at Prague’s FAMU he had captivated by his short films. The befitting title of his first film, Melancholy (Zádumčivost, 1963) captures their tone. A sensitive and individualistic approach to reality led him to its critical depiction, and hence to conflicts with political power. His played debut 322 (1969) was struck with a ban, his full feature documentary essay Picture of the Old World (Obrazy starého světa, 1972) was laid by the normalizators into a safe deposit, eight years after an accusation of existentionalism and the screenings of his I Love, You Love (Já milujem, ty miluješ, 1980) were not allowed. Nevertheless, as one of only a few Czechoslovak filmmakers he had managed to defend his freedom of expression and underscored its meaning in the documentary epic about the totalitarian regime in The Paper Heads (Papierové hlavy, 1995). Photography then became a new area of creative expression.