Commentary
Pavel Juráček (* 1935, + 1989) was a Czech film director and a representative of the so-called Czechoslovak New Wave – a young generation of filmmakers who took advantage of the relaxed social atmosphere of the 1960s in Czechoslovakia to make films that symbolically expressed a critical view of reality. For Pavel Juráček, the diary was a space where he could express his hopes and fears completely openly. In the spring of 1968, it overflowed with feelings of excitement about rapid development, when the boundaries of what was possible shifted every day (Milkman not Agent!), but also fear that this development would be stopped by an intervention from the Soviet Union (a feeling that reveals that many people were aware of the threat of occupation). Juráček’s pessimistic visions reveal images of terror and fear that were normal in the fifties in Czechoslovakia, and many people internalised that atmosphere. The diary entries also explore the relaxed atmosphere of the art scene in the sixties and Juráček’s personal psychological problems, factors which influenced his experience of the political events.
