Pavel Molek: Taking off with a falcon

A four-part docudrama series that recalls the years 1918, 1938, 1948 and 1968 on the basis of the Sokol movement in the Czech Republic. Civil dramas and personal stories against the backdrop of great history. The Czech Sokol community, better known as the Sokol, is an absolutely unique phenomenon in Czech and probably European history. Based on patriotic and Olympic ideas, it has accompanied Czech society at the peaks of its history and in its deepest slumps. It reflects the best of Czech patriotism and at the same time carries with it the weaknesses of nationalism. The governments of all regimes were aware of the potential of mass sporting organisation and tried to exploit or abuse it, or rather to eliminate it, and in the case of fascism and communism by the most drastic means. Often there was a close connection of the Sokol leaders with the social and political development of the country. In the history of Sokol, alongside Masaryk and Beneš, Gottwald, for example, figures prominently. Through the history of Sokol we can tell a significant part of the history of the Czech Republic. For our broadcast series, we have selected four stories, four fateful years, tied together by the common denominator of the figure eight at the end of the year.