The Slovak public broadcaster, RTVS, is commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia with various projects and documentary films.
On Monday, August 20, Slovak Radio and the Nation's Memory Institute opened an exhibition called August 1968: Hopes and Disillusionment. It commemorates the period of Prague Spring as well as the critical day of invasion; August 21.
On Tuesday, the RTVS Studio in Banská Bystrica (Central Slovakia) unveiled a commemorative plaque dedicated to the activity of the radio station in this city during the events of 1968.
On Tuesday night, TV channel One is broadcasting two films: the first is the premiere of the documentary film Dubček released in cinemas earlier this year. It maps the life and the decisions of Alexander Dubček, the head of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia at the time of the invasion. The second film is The Confidant or Eštebák, released in 2012, which narrates the story of a young man who becomes a professional agent of the state security service, in order to protect his lover from this institution.
TV channel Two is broadcasting the documentary film Válek that explores the personality of the poet Miroslav Válek who became Minister of Culture in 1969, after the invasion.
The documentary series Occupation 1968, focusing on the events of the invasion, is also being prepared by RTVS. It is based on the subjective opinions of the soldiers and lieutenants of the military units of Warsaw Pact which occupied Czechoslovakia. With the aim to gain a diverse perspective, five film directors from the five countries forming the military units involved had been chosen to participate in the production of these series.
A unique project called Ask at home 68 had been also launched this year. It is focused on the stories of people from the night and day of the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, and consists of three parts: a film, webpage and film projections with discussions. The film is an oral historical mosaic of the emotional testimonies of ordinary people, while the webpage is an online album with photos and short video clips uploaded by people not only from Slovakia, but from around the entire world. A part of the project is an exhibition of some of the collected photos displayed in the Slovak Radio building in Bratislava.
