Inspired by true events of the 1989 Czech and Slovak Velvet Revolution and Václav Havel's controversial release of 23000 prisoners. In addition to the story of three families affected by communist persecution, the film Amnesty also deals with the uprising of prisoners in Leopoldov, which required military intervention. The uprising was preceded by a broad amnesty granted by Václav Havel in January 1990, just a few days after his election as Czechoslovak president.
Acting
Anna Geislerová carries generations of grief in her jawline.
Direction
Karásek makes bureaucracy feel like a horror film.
Production
Period detail so precise you can smell the cigarettes.
Director
Jonáš Karásek
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The real 1990 amnesty remains controversial in Czechia; some historians blame it for a temporary crime wave, others defend Havel's moral break from communist cruelty.
Director Jonáš Karásek was born in Bratislava in 1967 — he was literally the age of the revolution's children, making this his generation's inherited trauma.
CZ
SK
