The Ostrava studio of the Czech Television has finished filming a documentary and a feature film about Milan Rastislav Stefanik (1880-1919), the Slovak-born founding-father of Czechoslovakia, the studio's spokeswoman Jana Fabianova told CTK today.
The documentary is entitled M. R. Stefanik: The Adventurous Life of a Legend and the name of the feature film is The Road Into the Impossible. Both films, created in Czech-Slovak co-production, were directed by Michael Kabos. The documentary will be shown on Czech Television in early January.
Stefanik was the first Czechoslovak defence minister. He was a politician, soldier and diplomat as well as an astronomer, ethnographer, explorer, inventor and pilot.
Unlike the other two most important personalities who negotiated the foundation of Czechoslovakia during World War One, Tomas Garrigue Masaryk and Edvard Benes (Czechoslovak presidents in 1918-35, 1935-1948), Stefanik had a rather short life.
The plane aboard which Stefanik flew from Italy back to his homeland on May 4, 1919 crashed near Bratislava. Stefanik and three crew members died in the crash.
"Stefanik was the architect of Czechoslovakia, a visionary whose dimensions it is not easy to show and understand fully. He left a mark in the history of several nations. The documentary shows his person from three different perspectives - French, Czech and Slovak," Kabos said.
"In the light of the access to French archives and the latest reconstructions of the plane crash, we can now dissipate some of the rumours that started surrounding the flight over the years," he added.
"The Road Into the Impossible is inspired by the special effects-heavy works of Georges Melies and Karel Zeman. It is a movie focused on visuals, telling the story of a Czechoslovak hero who was the modern origin of James Bond and Indiana Jones as well as one of the founders of Czechoslovakia," Kabos said.
On the occasion of 100 years of Stefanik's death, Slovakia has issued a commemorative coin and post stamp. A number of commemorative events were held in Slovakia. Stefanik clearly won the Greatest Slovak nationwide poll last year. Many streets and squares in Slovakia bear his name.
