Czech director of documentary about quintuplets: There is truth on both sides

"I believe there is some truth on each side here and that this is just only about communication," said Alena Derzsiová, the director of a 13-part documentary series about the first year in the life of the Czech Republic’s first-ever quintuplets, when asked about the dispute that has arisen between their patron, Klára Vítková-Rulíková, and the quintuplets’ mother, Alexandra Kiňová. Speaking this morning on Czech Television’s Studio 6 broadcast, Derzsiová said the recent interview given by Vítková-Rulíková to news server Onadnes.cz was unfortunate at the very least.  

"Sometimes matters taken out of context can cause unpleasant reactions from people who were not there at the time," she said. The director also said she hoped her series will succeed in sparking a broader discussion of the deficiencies of the state support system for families with twins and higher multiple births.

Derzsiová said the authors of the documentary film have decided not to hide the difficulties they have encountered during filming for that reason. One of the main problems the quintuplets’ family must grapple with is the legal limitations on the job description of a caregiver.

Currently such workers assist with household work, cooking, laundry and cleaning but are not permitted to physically provide help with the children as a nanny might. According to Czech Labor and Social Affairs Minister Michaela Marksová–Tominová, this is one of the changes the ministry plans on addressing in the future.  

The minister said, however, that such changes would not come sooner than a year or two from now. "That is part of the law on social services that will be discussed and opened up this year," the minister told Czech Television.

Derzsiová is of the opinion that the ministry could have helped sooner. "Klára [Vítková-Rulíková] has done a great deal for that family, but it was unfortunate that she was playing three roles at once – the head of the Club of Twins and Higher Multiples, a personal friend to the family, and also the only person representing the Labor and Social Affairs Ministry with respect to their case. She raised money and sought out projects and sponsors for the family. The money has currently run out and she was forced to pay the childcare workers from the transparent account for donations. That was the moment at which the state should have aided them, because people were sending their donations to the children, not to pay the salaries of caregivers," the director said.  

The Labor and Social Affairs Minister reminded Czech Television viewers that it was thanks to subsidies from the ministry that the Club of Twins and Higher Multiples had been able to finance childcare for the quintuplets above and beyond what is usually provided.