Czech documentary film LETY will screen online for free on 13 May, followed by live chat with producers

On Thursday, 13 May at 20:00 the online streaming service “Moje kino live“, run by the Aero Cinema in Prague, will offer the documentary film “LETY”, produced by ROMEA TV, free of charge. Immediately after the screening, a livestream chat with some of the film’s producers will be held, which viewers will be able to join with their questions through the Facebook page of the ROMEA organization.  

The screening is being held on the day when the commemorative ceremony is traditionally usually held at the site of the burial ground for the victims of the concentration camp for Romani people near the village of Lety u Písku; because of measures against the ongoing pandemic the ceremony has been cancelled this year. The 2019 hour-long documentary film “LETY”, by Romani community members Renata Berkyová, František Bikár and Viola Tokárová, captures 20 years of efforts by many stakeholders to remove an industrial pig farm from the site of the former concentration camp and the ongoing debate about the history of the place.     

The film combines investigative research into previously unclarified facts that influenced the circumstances of the farm being bought out by the state with testimonies from eyewitnesses, footage from the archives of Czech Television, ROMEA TV, and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, and interviews with those directly involved, such as Čeněk Růžička, Fedor Gál, Vladimír Mlynář, Markus Pape, Mayor of Mirovice Adolf Vondrášek, Petr Uhl, archaeologist Pavel Vařeka, Daniel Herman and others. The documentary recently won an award at the AKE DIKEHA? film festival, special recognition from the artistic director of the festival, Hamze Bytyci. 

The online screening can be accessed here on 13 May at 20:00. It will be possible to access the online “hall”, which will be open as of 19:30, with the password – dokumentlety. 

After the film there will be an online chat with the film’s producers, Renata Berkyová and Viola Tokárová, moderated by Anna Štičková, a researcher with the Prague Forum for Romani Histories, at just after 21:00. The debate will be joined by Čeněk Růžička, the main protagonist of the film who is the chair of the Committee for the Redress of the Roma Holocaust in the Czech Republic, which traditionally holds the commemorative ceremony at Lety.  

TRAILER