Summary
It was not only the feature films of famous directors that ended up in the censors’ vaults during the “normalisation” period, student works arrived there too. One example is the negativistic satire Evžen mezi námi (Eugene among Us), made by FAMU student Petr Nýdrle in 1981. It wasn’t until 1990 that the film, starring Jan Kraus, made it to the cinemas. The hero is a naive country boy who comes to Prague to become an artist. Instead of a career as a non-conformist poet and writer, he very gladly settles for the post of a valued author of half-witted, pro-regime song lyrics. Despite having lost a lot of its provocativeness over the years, the film remains a bitter testimony to the times and showcases the good acting form of Kraus and Jiří Bartoška. Eugene among Us also has commemorative value in that some members of Prague’s Bohemian set of the time flash by on screen, mostly in self-styled cameo roles.
Read more
