An initiative of the
Breathless. A Documentary Film Project /
Vùng biên giới. A Theatre Project with Rimini Protokoll /
rádio d-cz. A Radio Art Project /
Vùng biên giới. A Theatre Project with Rimini Protokoll /
rádio d-cz. A Radio Art Project /
Tatra
Radio Documentary
Authors: Werner Pöschko / Marek Janáč
Producer: : SWR with Deutschlandradio Kultur and (SWR/DLR/ORF 2009), 54 min
Broadcasting dates:
04.07.2009, 09:00 (Ö1, ORF)
06.09.2009, 14:05 (SWR2)
19.09.2009, 18:05 (Deutschlandradio Kultur)
04.11.2009, 21:45 (ČRo 3 - Vltava)
Shortly after the end of WW II, Hanzelka and Zikmund, two young Czech engineers, set out for their first in a series of trips around the world. Through deserts and jungles they went in a breathtakingly stylish limousine, being equally jolted by the bumpy terrains they explored and by the radical changes in their home country.
Chirping cicadas, steaming hookahs, the shimmering heat of the Nubian desert and in the middle of all this: a roaring silver limousine with an imposing tail fin. Model Tatra 87 clearly was the star of the enterprise, as engineers Jiři Hanzelka and Miroslav Zikmund set out on their first long trip through Africa and Latin America in 1947. With the backing of car manufacturer Tatra’s management, the two young men followed their long prepared self-imposed mission, which was to act as political, cultural and economic ambassadors for the newly founded, post-war Czechoslovakia. Their weekly newspaper articles and daily radio reports, their books and documentary films turned Hanzelka and Zikmund into popular media icons both at home and throughout the former Eastern Block. Still, they were soon caught between the front lines of the then opposing political systems. Due to their decidedly leftist convictions, they were denied entry to the USA and Australia. The Czech government, in turn, tried to exploit their popularity for their own purposes and, although the two made a point of staying independent, they did indeed enjoy their exceptional freedom of movement, granted by the authorities. These benefits came to an abrupt end in 1964, when Moscow declared Hanzelka and Zikmund as “antisocialist elements”, following their "Zvláštní zpráva č. 4" ("Secret Special Report no. 4"), the pair’s harsh critique of the social and economic reality in the Soviet Union. Having openly supported the democratic movement during the Prague Spring, in its aftermath Hanzelka and Zikmund are then subjected to a publication ban that lasts for some twenty years – they are forced to sell their imposing expedition equipment in order to survive. Werner Pöschko’s documentary follows the pair’s tracks into the social and technical utopias of 20th-century Modernity and explores the contradictions in which Hanzelka and Zikmund became entangled on their journey. The documentary presents the views of an array of figures, amongst them Hans Christian Richter, the great-great grandson of the Tatra founder, Vaclav Havel, former president of the Czech Republic, and Miroslav Zikmund himself, today almost 90 years of age. The documentary takes of the example of colourful Czech media heroes, adventurers and hands-on engineers to explore the many twists and turns of recent European history.
WERNER PÖSCHKO
born in Lucerne (Switzerland) in 1959, is an author with a wide interest in recent history and popular culture. Pöschko is himself widely travelled; he currently lives in Vienna, where he works as a lithographer, photo editor and teacher at the Höhere Graphische Bundes- Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt. His previous radio pieces (e.g. "Baracoa – Aufzeichnungen zu einer Reise mit ungewissem Verlauf", 2005 and "Die Zone", 2006) reveal a remarkable sensitivity to the history and function of radio, in his use of original sound clips as well as interviews and set conversations. He enjoys working along the thin line dividing fiction and documentary.
MAREK JANÁČ
works as a radio documentarist for Czech radio - Český rozhlas, and earned a Czech radio audience award for his radio documentary "Svět Miroslava Z." ("The world of Miroslav Z."), a portrait of Miroslav Zikmund. He assisted Pöschko in his research and conducted interviews in the Czech Republic. In his own documentary version he will look into the travellers Hanzelka and Zikmund as well as the Tatra company from a Czech perspective, drawing in turn on the research and recordings of Werner Pöschko.
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