Genij vlasti (1998)

Overview

When Vojtěch Hynais, who lived in Paris in the 1880s, received an offer to paint the curtain for the National Theater, he accepted it. However, his modern concept for that time was not accepted by the academically rigid commission. He did not depict the required figures from Czech history, but rather an artist kissed by the Muse. Although he completed the work, he was never paid for his work on the largest curtain in Austria-Hungary. Author Martin Šafránek very sensitively uncovered the issue of moral failure at the cost of material benefits on the one hand and the courage to risk these values to the point of self-destruction on the other. Director Jiří Strach, who made his debut with this work in 1998, cast Radek Holub and Klára Issová in the leading roles.