Vaclav Havel - Ein böhmisches Märchen

In January 1989 the writer and philosopher Václav Havel was incarcerated by the Czech authorities as a state enemy. In December of the same year he became the president of Czechoslovakia. In this film we get to know Havel through the eyes of a psychology student who works nights as a warden in Plzen-Bory prison. During the long nocturnal hours he studies the most famous prisoner in this, the oldest prison in Czechoslovakia, where Havel was imprisoned from 1979 to 1983. The student is not primarily interested in Havel as a statesman or politician but more in the human being behind. Havel's letters to his wife Olag reveal important indications of his personality. Havel's own co-operation to this film sheds a special light on his fascinating versatility. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)