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BYE BYE SHANGHAI

By Jana BOKOVA

ENDORFILM - as PROD

Documentary - Completed 2008

WHAT THE WORD "EXILE" MEANS?

- Year of production
- 2008
- Genres
- Documentary
- Countries
- CZECH REPUBLIC, ARGENTINA
- Languages
- CZECH
- Budget
- 0.3 - 0.6 M$
- Duration
- 117 mn
- Director(s)
- Jana BOKOVA
- Producer(s)
- Jiri KONECNY
- Synopsis
- Distinguished Czech documentarist Jana Boková, who lives in Argentina, decided for her latest film to find out exactly what the word “exile” means. Her first stop is Prague where, after a period of 40 years, she meets up with a friend from her school days, the philosopher Václav Bělohradský. Their joint recollections of leaving Prague, at that time occupied by “friendly” forces of Soviet Union, are deftly woven into high-quality archive footage. She also conducts a frank interview in Prague with the lightly intoxicated Vlasta Třešňák, who remembers his torture during the endless interrogations by the state secret police and the need to choose between prison and emigration. This highly personal film by Jana Boková, examining the lives of several Czech emigrés, including the director herself, considers the various aspects of emigration and reaches the conclusion that, once a person has been uprooted, he can never cultivate his native roots again.