Slovak Embassy in India screens film on Prague Spring

Residents of the city of Mumbai (India) were able to watch a film depicting the events of the Prague Spring in the joint premises of the Slovak and Czech embassies to mark the 50th anniversary of the era, with the film premiere introduced by Slovak Ambassador to India Ivan Lančarič and his Czech counterpart Milan Hovorka, TASR learnt from the Foreign and European Affairs Ministry press department on Monday. The documentary, entitled 'CzechMate: Hladanie Jiriho Manzela' (searching for Jiri Manzel) by Indian director Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, concerns the story of director Jiri Menzel and his Czechoslovak peers from the given period. Despite the fact that the film runs for more than seven hours and that most of the interviews are in Czech and Slovak (meaning that Indian viewers had to read English subtitles for seven hours), the film was welcomed by the dozens of viewers present with great enthusiasm and received long applause at the end, said the ministry. With its seven hours and 15 minutes, the documentary is the longest film that has ever been granted permission for public distribution in India. Set to premiere in Los Angeles in September, the movie will next be screened at an international film festival in Mumbai.