The History in 8

A sculptor is shaping a stone and giving it a shape of a human head, other statues and busts around it are already finished – they are all hard-headed Czechs, as Miloš Kopecký comments. He then goes on to explain what these hard-headed Czechs had to live through, specifically all the significant years of the Czech history, that usually end with the number eight. In 1158 Vladislaus II was crowned King of Bohemia, in August 1278 Ottokar II died in the Battle of the Marchfeld, in 1348 Charles IV founded a university in Prague and thirty years later he died. Kopecký walks around the streets, the parks, and the pubs of Pilsen and Prague and asks random interviewees for their opinions on these historical events. As a trick he suggests that these are contemporary events that should concern them. This is followed by further lecture and another series of questions. This time are the questions focused on the Prague defenestration of 1618, the revolutionary year of 1848, and the founding of Social Democracy as an opposition party in 1878. In October 1918, an independent republic was established and it existed until 1938. Kopecký's ironic comments suggest that everyone surely remembers the year 1948, whether from experience or from its aftermath. The final question is about the present time, the spring of 1968, and speculates how long will last the contemporary atmosphere of hope. The irony of some of the questions and answers throughout the film is highlighted by short cuts to a sculpture of a howling man wearing a furry hat, made by Josef Malínský, and to a painting depicting a dressmaker's manequin and a music stand.