Citizen Vaclav Havel Goes On Vacation

Before he became president of the Czech Republic after the Velvet Revolution, Vaclav Havel - playwright, essayist, intellectual - was a leading dissident, repeatedly jailed by the communist government.

This extraordinary documentary by novelist/screenwriter/filmmaker Jan Novak and Adam Novak recreates with irony a little-known episode in Havel’s life as a dissident: the decision to test the limits of the secret police by taking an extended “vacation” to visit his friends all over Czechoslovakia.

The result is a riveting–and often humorous-journey into the soul of a brave individual who faces totalitarianism with an open heart.