1989: We want to breathe

Karel Strachota's new film is based on archival footage and period materials documenting everyday life at the time. It is a mosaic of authentic situations and events, the main protagonists have realistic backgrounds. The film culminates with the demonstrations that began in Teplice over the disastrous environmental pollution a week before 17 November 1989, which subsequently turned into political protests. The November Revolution began in the North: people wanted to breathe.

Teplice in the period of the so-called normalisation. The once beautiful spa town, nicknamed Little Paris, has been devastated, as has the entire northwestern industrial border region. It is often shrouded in a thick smog in which you can't even see two metres. It is also a bastion of a specific kind of punk and a city of exceptional alternative culture. It is mostly in Teplice that the story of Pavel and Renata takes place. They want to live freely, in accordance with their ideals. However, their lives are constantly interfered with by the repressive communist regime, for whom they represent "troublesome youth". The film culminates with the demonstrations that began in Teplice a week before 17 November 1989 because of the catastrophic environmental pollution, which subsequently turned into political protests. The November Revolution started in the North: people wanted to breathe.