Centenary of Miroslav Zikmund

The turbulent history of the twentieth century through the eyes of a man who knew the world.
This audiobook is not a biography of Miroslav Zikmund. It is an invitation to the world of the fabled archive. It's sitting at the table with Miroslav Zikmund. You pour a sip of plum brandy into the stoneware or a glass of heavier, fuller-bodied red wine, that's how we do it. We can assure you that behind each story, among other things, there is a specific debate that we had that put the topics in context. It's a ticket to an amusement park called life (or history), where you sit on a roller coaster here, a house of horrors there, and sometimes you get carried away by a roller coaster called chance. You will walk with us in the footsteps of the making of the film The Century of Miroslav Zikmund, in the footsteps of the life of Miroslav Zikmund and thus in the marginal situations of our entire republic. As Miroslav Zikmund says: "I was conceived in the days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and was born in the early days of the Republic. That's why I've considered her my older brother all my life."
Let's take a journey through history and have the story of the last century told by a man who lived it.

Miroslav Náplava (* 1966) - author of a film documentary of the same name about Albania and dozens of other travel reports and films. Together with Petr Horký they have written four books: Two Journeys in Archaeology, Elephants Live to be a Hundred Years Old (with Miroslav Zikmund), The Hunt for the Giant Worm and the bestseller Cuba Libre, awarded among others. The Egon Erwin Kisch Prize. His book Suicide Cruises was published in two editions. As an editor he participated in the publication of a two-volume collection of the works of the travellers Hanzelka and Zikmund Legend H+Z. The phenomenon of Czech travel writing.

Miroslav Zikmund (14. February 1919, Pilsen - 1 December 2021, Prague) and Jiří Hanzelka spent the night together at the Cheops pyramid, filmed the birth of the volcano, they've crossed the Nubian desert, lived with Ecuadorian skull hunters. They have traveled to 112 countries and territories around the planet, documenting the world. They stayed in Africa when the colonial system was disappearing, they carried the Czechoslovak flag to Kilimanjaro, they visited the Pygmies in the Congo forest. In the legendary Tatra 87, they travelled 111,000 kilometres and returned to their communist-controlled homeland. On their journey through Asia and Oceania, they experienced the equatorial "Neptune's Baptism", talked to presidents, Gagarin and Hillary, were the first to cross the Soviet Union, and pushed the boundaries of the possible. The impressive balance sheet of Sigismund's activities is expanded by a meticulously maintained personal archive, which places the story of one man in the context of almost the last hundred years and the fate of the entire history of our republic. The admirable story of this personality has inspired several generations. In 1968, they rejected the occupation and the emerging normalization regime, and for twenty years they became politically undesirable persons. They made 4 feature films and 147 documentaries, wrote 700 radio and 300 newspaper reports, sold 6.5 million books, and their publications are among the jewels of Czech travel writing. In 1993 they received the E. E. Kisch, in 1999 they received the Medal of Merit II. grades.

Petr Horky (* 1973) - director, writer, producer, traveller. From 1994 he worked as a presenter and later director at Czech Television. Founder of the Piranha Film production company, co-organiser of the WorldFilm and Unknown Country travel film shows, director of about 80 documentary films.
He was nominated for the Czech Lion for his feature-length documentary Century of Miroslav Zikmund, which became the most viewed documentary in Czech cinemas in 2014.
He has hosted more than 1,500 live programmes and a number of magazine shows for ČT. He also hosted the official meeting of 28 European presidents.
He is the author and co-author of nine books (Two Journeys in Archaeology, Elephants live up to 100 years, Unknown country, Report on the trip to the North Pole, Cuba Libre, The hunt for the giant worm, Albania. Beauty with a Bad Reputation, CestoScripts, Filmmakers H+Z), including two bestsellers and countless newspaper articles. The Century of Miroslav Zikmund is his tenth title. He has won numerous film awards and is a two-time winner of the Egon Erwin Kisch Literary Award.   Filmed on the erupting volcano Merapi, with great whites and tiger sharks without any barrier. He discovered the wrecks of old ships in the Maldives, reached the North Pole and the Cold Pole - the coldest inhabited place in the world, crossed Greenland on skis, made the first winter crossing of the Mongolian lake Khovsghol. He has filmed with personalities such as Edmund Hillary, Thor Heyerdahl, Reinhold Messner, Arthur C. Clarke, Erich von Däniken, the last man on the moon Eugene Cernan and the captain of the Apollo XIII mission Jim Lovell.

Vladimír Kroc (* 1966) - foreign trade economist by education, radio broadcaster by soul and rock drummer by heart. Already at the University of Economics, he founded a student radio station in his dormitory in Jaro. And he stayed true to the microphone. Especially in Czech Radio. He hosts news and journalism on Radiožurnál and Czech Radio Plus, and collaborates with Dvojka. Among other things, for fifteen years he has been presenting the travel weekly The World Across the World, and for the tenth year he has accompanied listeners with the Foreign Correspondents' Notebook. He worked at Czech Television in Studio 6, TV3 and Z1. For Czech Television he has made two original series of Observations from Elsewhere - from Australia and New Zealand. It was these countries that he fell in love with, and of the five books he wrote, two were devoted to the antipodes: Southern Cross and Orion upside down. He met Miroslav Zikmund during the filming of the programme About Whom They Talk about the honouring of the H+Z duo by President Václav Havel in October 1999. Dozens of other interviews followed, some of which were published on the audio CD Životem křížem krážem. His hobbies include active music, instrumental diving and parachuting.

Ladislav Frej (* 26 November 1941, Brno) - graduated in acting at the Brno JAMU. Immediately after school he worked at the Evening Brno Theatre (1963-65), from where he moved to the East Bohemian Theatre in Pardubice (1965-69); followed by engagements at the State Theatre in Ostrava (1969-70), at the S. K. Neumann Theatre in Prague (today's Theatre pod Palmovkou, 1970-79), at the Prague City Theatres (1979-87), and at the Vinohrady Theatre (1987-94).

He was a member of the Drama Theatre of the National Theatre in 1994-98, during which time he performed in Peer Gynt, The Cherry Orchard, Faust and Othello. In 1998 he returned to the Vinohrady Theatre, where he has been working ever since. His voice is known from dubbing, his face is familiar to TV and film viewers: His filmography includes several dozen titles (with television productions at the core of his work), including popular series. At the National Theatre, he appears in Vladimír Morávek's production of 1789 or Perfect Luck.

Michal Bumbálek (* 1971) - graduated from the Brno Conservatoire and JAMU. During his studies, he collaborated with the Husa na provázku Theatre, where he later gained an engagement. He also played in HaDivadlo and in Divadlo U stolu. Since 2013 he has been a member of the Mahen Drama Theatre, where he has played a number of interesting roles.
Petr Horky, Vladimir Kroc (see above)

Copyright:  
The recording is based on the book Century of Miroslav Zikmund by Miroslav Zikmund, Peter Horky, Miroslav Náplava and Vladimír Kroc published by JOTA and PiranhaFilm in 2017. Text © Miroslav Zikmund, Petr Horký, Miroslav Náplava, Vladimir Kroc, 2017. Audiobook © IOTA Publishers, does r. o., © PiranhaFilm, s. r. o., 2025. Read by Ladislav Frej, Petr Horký, Michal Bumbálek, Vladimír Kroc. Music, direction, editing and mastering Studio Budíkov. Published by JOTA Publishing House, p. r. o. and PiranhaFilm, s. r. o. in 2025.