Shadows of the Spring: The Normalization Era in Czechoslovakia

After the Warsaw Pact invasion of 1968, Czechoslovak cinema’s great decade ended along with the political freedoms of the Prague Spring—or at least that’s the received wisdom. The films in this series tell a different story. Released between 1971 and 1986, when the state’s so-called “normalization” policies were at their most stifling, these films suggest that, even in the bleakest of political climates, enterprising artists will continue to create, even under radically altered conditions.

Biopics, supernatural comedies, border Westerns, slow-burning character studies, psychedelic fairy tales, existential dramas—despite this wealth of genres, this long-maligned period of Czechoslovak cinema is rarely considered as a distinct era with its own texture and cast of characters.

Many of the directors who defined the 1960s had, by the time of normalization, fled the country. Others—Jaromil Jireš, Jiří Menzel, Karel Kachyňa, Věra Chytilová, Juraj Herz, and František Vláčil among them—remained, though some were initially banned from directing or forced to work in genres and forms not of their choosing. Their films of this period often show the strain of that adjustment, as they wrestled with official mandates and harsh supervision, struggling to impose their personality on material that often defied them. Shadows of the Spring is not the story of these filmmakers’ capitulation, but rather of the indomitability of the human spirit, as they remained standing upon shifting aesthetic and political sands, and maintained a measure of creative integrity against the odds.

Organized by Christopher Small, guest curator, and Francisco Valente, Curatorial Associate, Department of Film, MoMA. Thanks to Národní filmový archiv, Prague (NFA), Slovenský filmový ústav (SFÚ), and Czech Center New York.

Film at MoMA is made possible by CHANEL.

Additional support is provided by the Annual Film Fund. Leadership support for the Annual Film Fund is provided by The Contemporary Arts Council of The Museum of Modern Art, Agnes Gund through The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art, the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP), and The Young Patrons Council of The Museum of Modern Art.