Every week in the summer The duty takes you on the side roads of university life. A proposal that is both scholarly and intimate, to be picked up like a postcard during the summer season. Third stopover: the Czech Republic, in the company of Denis Chouinard, who directs the UQAM Summer School in Prague.
Pravda Vitezi, the truth will prevail, are words that we see and hear a lot in Prague these days, as we commemorate the tragic death of the theologian and philosopher Jan Hus, who was burned alive by the court of the Inquisition after a trial bogus at Constance in 1415 where he was condemned for heresy. He had made these words his fight so that the corruption of the Catholic Church would cease. Immediately transformed into a martyr, Hus will create a feeling of national unity such as there had never been before in the Bohemian lands.
This slogan was adopted again in 1918 by the founders of the First Republic of Czechoslovakia, begun on the still smoldering ashes of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the end of the First World War, and it was taken up by civic movements calling for an end from Soviet tutelage at the end of the 1980s under the aegis of Václav Havel.
These days, in Prague, we talk a lot more about the “great Russian lie” than about the truth. Over the past four months, the city has taken in more than 300,000 Ukrainian refugees, which is considerable considering that at the last census, the Czech capital had only 1,200,000 inhabitants. This generosity in welcoming these thousands of refugees (women and children for the most part) in a region not very famous for its openness to immigration, is largely due to the fact that this Russian military invasion, the people of Prague experienced it in their flesh in 1968 and that the memories linked to it are still very palpable in the population.
But the Ukrainians are not the only ones who have been living in Prague for several weeks. Nearly fifty Quebec students also roam the winding streets of this jewel of the Baroque. Participating in the UQAM Summer School in Prague, launched in 2017, students get to know this city, which is said to be the most beautiful in Europe. At the end of this stay, they will have tried to decode this unique culture and translate it into ten films written, shot and edited here in Prague.
Coming from film, television, theater or media and cultural production programs, most are experiencing an extended trip outside Quebec for the first time. The Ukrainian presence has piqued the curiosity of many of them and it will be the central subject of two of the films made here. On the program for the students, the production of five documentaries and five works of fiction revolving around the most diverse subjects, but all having taken root in their personal experience lived in the field.
Similarities
Why the Czech Republic as a territory of experimentation, a country that does not at first glance have any chemistry with Quebec? However, by stopping there a little, the similarities are rather numerous between the two nations. The Czechs certainly achieved their independence more than a hundred years ago, but they are, like us, inhabited by an uncertain cultural climate. In the 19the century, the Czech language very nearly disappeared under the assimilating steamroller of Germanic culture. It took a very small group of defenders fighting tooth and nail to claim the place of the Czech language in the public space at a time when speaking and working in German was synonymous with social and economic advancement.
And this feeling of a besieged nation, the Czechs still carry it with them today after having suffered long periods of occupation by Nazi Germany following the great betrayal that was the Munich agreements in 1938 and, of course , Soviets who only completely withdrew from the Czech barracks in 1993. This leaves traces in the imagination, all these noises of boots.
A small nation similar in size to ours (10 million inhabitants), the Czech Republic is surrounded by nations speaking a language other than Czech and there are barely 12 million Czech speakers on the planet. As for Quebecers, the Czechs experience this feeling of perpetual struggle to continue to exist in a global cultural space where the hegemony of the great powers leaves very little room for diversity and minority languages.
Language shock is usually the most significant hurdle that students participating in this summer school have to face when they arrive. Czech is a Slavic language using the Latin alphabet. But in order to be able to integrate the diphthongs specific to other Slavic languages, using the Cyrillic alphabet, the Czechs (thanks again to Jan Hus, who was also a linguist) invented a multitude of unpublished accents. Some letters are almost never used, such as “Q”.
We also have the propensity not to use vowels too much. For example the following tongue twister: Strc prst skrz krk, which can be translated as: push your finger down your throat. Earlier this year, the students were treated to several Czech lessons in Montreal, and that greatly lessened the initial shock. Quickly, the students were able to develop a basic vocabulary to get by and this greatly contributed to the welcome they received from the people of Prague.
The students are now in the middle of this blitz of film creation and they are spreading all over the country to shoot their productions. Their eyes sparkle and they are beautiful to behold, making the most of this unique opportunity. The climax of this Czech epic will take place on July 30, when these films will be screened during a special evening at Kino Ponrepo, the legendary Prague hall, where Beethoven gave a recital in 1798. It will be a great moment of pride. for the students, who will be able to show the fruit of their labor to the actors, protagonists, speakers and friends met in Prague during their stay. And also the time to say goodbye to the lands of Bohemia after more than two months trying to tame them.
A fifth edition of the UQAM Summer School in Prague is announced from May 22 to July 21, 2023.