The army and the avant-garde
In today's blogpost I want to highlight the extraordinary aesthetic quality of productions by the Czechoslovak Army Film Studio. The institution was founded during World War I and operated until the Mid-90s. The archive of its films can be found in the cellar of the police headquarters of Prague. In the midst of communist memorabilia, you can sit down on an old couch and watch brilliantly done films on a 12 inch TV with gracious help from its custodians: two shaggy bearded middle-aged men who know pretty much everything you ever wanted to know about socialist era propaganda.
One of the best films I found in the archives was "Neprojdou" from 1952 whose title translates into "They shall not pass". It depicts everyday life at an exemplary border station where communist soldiers stand bravely in the face of imperialist capitalist aggression. Through wonderful pan and tracking shots we get to know the different members of the unit and their personal biographies before ending in an action sequence and a soldier riding into the sunset, just like in a cowboy film with John Wayne!
In this film and others like it, the border is depicted as a place of unrest, violence and danger. When it comes to the images we have of the border, little seems to have changed between 1952 and 2018.
Save the date: on Wednesday 24th of October at 19:00 I will be doing a lecture and show "Neprojodou" at Halle 14 in Leipzig.
