A special guide to empty Prague. Film director and screenwriter Ivan Fíla christened his third book, the eloquent title Emergency
The unusual publication The State of Emergency, recently published by Libri, contains 105 black-and-white photographs taken by the author, which accompany sixty-six micro-stories written during the state of emergency announced this spring and lasting just 66 days. While most of us kept our outdoor activities to a minimum during that time, Ivan Fíla rode with his camera into the deserted streets and nooks of Prague every day.
The captured images, supplemented by their own short texts, were continuously published on their Facebook profile. This created an original chronicle of the difficult period we have all gone through this year, the uniqueness of which has been proclaimed in the context of the last few decades of our history by a growing number of works inspired by domestic writers and other artists (I would like to recall at least the prose
Coronavirus as a backdrop, not a topic
Although the term “chronicle” in this case must be taken with great caution… Because one mentioned photo and specific data anchor the individual entries in the present, in their texts – at first only short, but gradually gaining in scope – the “time traveler” Ivan Fíla goes far into the past. The expeditions are very diverse, the writer’s personal memories alternate between heard or read stories, stories and legends, but their common venue mostly remains Prague, especially the author’s hometown of Malá Strana. Not only members of the author’s family, his friends and co-workers, but also some famous personalities or, on the contrary, forgotten local figures gradually parade before the reader’s eyes.
Pavel Tigrid and the furious reporter Egon Erwin Kisch, Václav Havel with Mr. Samuel, a mystic and insurance company employee reminiscent of Kafka, or Meda Mládková with St. Rosalia depicted on the relief of an old town house miss the pages of the book.
Ivan Fíla’s book represents not only an attractive addition in the category of pragens, but also a valuable document of the time. Author already he began publishing more on his Facebook and notes that should be part of his next book, The Jeseníky Mountains – Wandering the World and Time.
