The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Screening

Activity Type: 
Film
Presenter: 
Martin Votruba, Head of the Slovak Studies Program
Date: 
Wednesday, February 28, 2018 - 14:00
Event Status: 
As Scheduled
Location: 
4130 Posvar Hall
Contact Person: 
Kiersten Walmsley
Contact Email: 
kmw152@pitt.edu

The Unbearable Lightness of Being (171 min) is a 1988 American film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Milan Kundera, published in 1984. Director Philip Kaufman and screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière portray the effect on Czechoslovak artistic and intellectual life during the 1968 Prague Spring of socialist liberalization preceding the invasion by the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact that ushered in a period of communist repression. It portrays the moral, political, and psycho-sexual consequences for three bohemian friends: a surgeon, and two female artists with whom he has a relationship.

Professor Martin Votruba, Head of the Slovak Studies Program at Pitt, will introduce the film.

UCIS Unit: 
Center for Russian East European and Eurasian Studies
Other Pitt Sponsors: 
Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures; Film Studies Program
World Regions: 
Europe and Russia
International
Russia/Eastern Europe