Czechoslovakian new-wave films such as Closely Observed Trains dominated international festivals and awards in the 1960s.
At the heart of this success was the Prague film academy, Famu. Its most illustrious graduates include Jiri Menzel , Milan Kundera,
Jan Nemec , Vera Chytilova and Milos Forman whose gentle, realistic comedies Peter and Paula and A Blonde in Love won much critical acclaim.
The Soviet invasion in 1968 spelt the end of independently-minded film-making in Czechoslovakia.
Forman went to America, where he continued making films, including One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest and Amadeus (being shown tomorrow at 10.05pm), which both won Oscars.
Many of his former colleagues, however, spent the next 20 years in obscurity. Those who stayed on had to walk an almost impossible tightrope between opportunism and preserving their artistic integrity. Director Paul Pawlikowski