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Bedrich Smetana is the poet of the future: an interview with director Karel Vachek.

Article Excerpt
Stones and trees, the opera Dalibor and politicians, doctors and ecologists, poets and singers, a theatre director and a documentary maker, the National Theatre and dialogues about the present. All these elements come together the concluding documentary film of the tetralogy Maly kapitalista [The Little Capitalist] directed by Karel Vachek, and entitled Kdo bude hlidat hlidace? Dalibor aneb klick chaloupce strycka Toma [Who Will Guard the Guards? Dalibor or the key to Uncle Tom's Cottage]. The documentary is unconventional not only because it is almost four hours long, but above all in the way it is structured, more like a novel or piece of music than a traditional documentary. It consists mainly of a film record of piano rehearsals of Smetana's opera Dalibor at the National Theatre, directed by Jan Antonin Pitinsky, which is intercut with conversations on the themes of the current cultural, political, medical and human situation in the Czech Republic. All these themes are linked up and woven around problems that are given concrete embodiment in the opera Dalibor. And trees and stones are silent companions to Smetana's music, although they too certainly have something to say. Almost four hours long, but above all in the way it is structured, more like a novel or piece of music than a traditional documentary. It consists mainly of a film record of piano rehearsals of Smetana's opera Dalibor at the National Theatre, directed by Jan Antonin Pitinsky, which is intercut with conversations on the themes of the current cultural, political, medical and human situation in the Czech Republic. All these themes are linked up and woven around problems that are given concrete embodiment in the opera Dalibor, And trees and stones are silent companions to Smetana's music, although they too certainly have something to say.

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Let's start with the title of the film. Can you explain it for us?

Certain works of art are important for me, and because I want people to read them, I like to add them to the names of my films. This last film is called Who will Guard the Guards? Dalibor or the key to Uncle Tom's Cottage. Uncle Tom's Cottage is an important book for the liberation of the black inhabitants of America, and opened up the question of minorities for the whole world....

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