JULY 17, 1998

F R O M  T H E  W E E K L I E S

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By Daniela Lazarova

The most attention grabbing photo of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival jumps out at readers from this week's Prague Post. It shows quiet spoken Academy Award director and esteemed member of the jury Jiri Menzel beating producer Jiri Sirotek with a stick, while the latter makes a desperate attempt to fend off the blows with an outstretched hand. Astonished on-lookers are caught in the background of this melee.

Although, luckily, some journalists and foreign visitors thought this was an act to liven up the Festival, Menzel was in earnest - he was out to humiliate producer Jiri Sirotek and, as he himself said later, he wanted the biggest possible audience. He certainly got his wish. As the Prague Post reports, some 1,200 guests in Hotel Thermal's main film auditorium witnessed the dramatic event. The old score which Menzel had to settle with Sirotek is a well-known affair to Czechs. The two were partners in a plan to buy the rights to Bohumil Hrabal's novel I served the King of England. Menzel claims he helped Sirotek gain the rights for 50,000 crowns and then the producer turned around and sold them to TV Nova for 4,5 million. Menzel claims the sale prevented him from making the film. After giving Sirotek a public thrashing the director returned to his seat nonchalantly tossing aside the weapon. It was grabbed by actress Eliska Balcerova who, according to the Prague Post, later auctioned off the stick in a well attended event.

Are Czech drivers more inconsiderate than others in Europe? Many foreigners think so and most Czechs have given up even grumbling about it. Periodically some weekly will bring new, disturbing statistics, at best the police will introduce a new tighter regulation and in no time at all things will have gone back to normal. This week the subject has been brought up in Respekt which notes that every year a small size town disappears off the map due to reckless driving. Between January and May of this year 455 people died in road accidents. The number of pedestrians killed is three times higher than in Austria or Germany /compared per head/ and five times higher than in the Scandinavian states. The number of deaths dipped after police introduced a 50km speed limit in residential areas - but drivers no longer feel the need to respect it and have gone back to their old habits . According to the head of traffic police Zdenek Bambas the problem is that the possible penalties are totally inadequate. In other European states a high fine, confiscation of a driving license and even a more expensive life insurance are used as a form of pressure for drivers to adhere to regulations. Not so in this country. The fine for speeding is between 500 and 1,00O crowns and no one is taking much notice. The police are therefore preparing yet another change for the better - a system under which drivers transgressions will be recorded in a computer file and a certain number of transgressions would enable police to confiscate the driver's license. Although such a move is long overdue - it is not clear when we can expect it to go into effect. The trouble is - Bambas explains - that this amendment needs to be approved by Parliament - and mps, as drivers, are potential victims.

And finally, turning back to the English language Prague Post, which has the pick of this week's non-political stories. Matt Downing reports on the ongoing reconstruction of the Lennon wall - Prague's shrine to democracy during the communist era. The Lennon wall was a spontaneous act of dissent. Students played cat and mouse with the communist police who would whitewash it every time Lennon's spray painted portrait surrounded by peace and democracy slogans appeared and in no time at all the painting would be back again. Since then the wall has suffered considerably - as Matt Downing says - its notoriety has been both its downfall and its salvation. Tourists visiting it would pull off bits of plaster for souvenirs, and spray artists would add their signatures to it. Some time ago, the Knights of Malta embassy whose property the wall borders, opted to have the wall reconstructed and the sketchy remains of Lennon's portrait painted over.

The city magistrate and the Prague Conservation Society were only too willing to agree to this plan - and so the wall, which is one of Prague's most famous modern monuments - will be back in all its glory. Of course it will never be the same... but then a lot of museum pieces one admires aren't authentic either.

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