Reading time: 4 minutes 
From small movie festivals to free exhibitions, lectures or concerts, Prague is preparing for a host of events to commemorate the important date when tanks, cannons and rifles fell silent across the European continent 80 years ago.
History on the silver screen
Edison Filmhub’s mini film fest ‘Fragments of War: 80 Years On’ comes top of the list, running from Thursday to Sunday at the little boutique cinema at Jindřišská.
The fest will screen about ten movies from all around the world, all English-friendly, throughout the weekend with a wide diversity of insights, lessons and outlooks on the global conflict. With Liv Lisa Fries (who rose to prominence as the beloved Charlotte in ‘Babylon Berlin’) and Johannes Hegemann in the lead roles, the German biographical movie ‘From Hilde with Love’ looks at a couple involved in anti-Nazi resistance during the war.
Other noteworthy historical dramas include Hungary’s 2015 Oscar-winning, Auschwitz-set ‘Son of Saul’; the 2020 ‘Love It Was Not’ looking at the unlikely love story between a Jewish concentration camp prisoner and a high-ranking SS officer; and ‘Quisling – The Final Days’ on the last days of Norway’s wartime, pro-Nazi collaboration government leader Vidkun Quisling.
Additionally, ‘Persian Lessons’ by Vadim Perelman follows a young Belgian man tasked with teaching Farsi to a concentration camp officer, with the only little hiccup being that he has no knowledge of the language either.
Several documentaries on the program too, including a British film on the iconic Spitfire fighter aircraft, Ken Loach’s ‘Spirit of 45’ on post-war Britain, and ‘The Meaning of Hitler’ where filmmakers try to unravel, with the help of noted historians and Nazi hunters, what the past may teach us about the present.
Finally, the 2021 animated film ‘Where is Anne Frank’ by Israeli director Ari Folman imagines Kitty, the imaginary friend to whom Anne Frank’s diary was addressed, manifesting in modern-day Amsterdam.
More on Edison Filmhub’s festival here. Tickets for individual screenings are available, and festival passes give access to several entries.
Elsewhere in Prague, Kino Aero will screen Jiří Menzel’s timeless, wartime coming-of-age story ‘Closely Watched Trains’ on Thursday, May 8, at 8:30 as part of its ongoing ‘Some Like it Czech’ cycle. The movie will have English subtitles and a short English introduction.
Free poster exhibit at Prague Castle
Opening to the public on Thursday at the Imperial Stables, ‘The Hour of Liberation: Wartime Posters 1938-1945’ displays nearly 100 original posters and offers a fascinating deep dive into the mechanisms of political propaganda and wartime communication and the central role played by the medium in times of conflict.
Organized by Prague Castle in cooperation with the Military Institute Prague and the Central Military Archives, the exhibition shows period posters from Czechoslovakia and all around the world, from German anti-Jewish posters to Protectorate-era official proclamations all the way through British war morale-boosting messages or anti-Soviet propaganda material.
The exhibition is free for all, and it runs until Oct. 28 at the Imperial Stables in the Prague Castle complex.
Already running since the end of April, another exhibition ‘1945 Voláme všechny Čechy!’ (‘1945 Calling All Czechs’) at the Army Museum in Žižkov looks at the final days of the war and how it unfolded in Prague and the Protectorate of Moravia and Bohemia.
Organized by Prague City Hall, an outdoor exhibition ‘V for Victory’ is also on display on Mariánské náměstí, in the city centre, from April 30 to May 30.
Meanwhile, Galerie Vinohradská 12 – located in the building of Czech Radio – will bring dozens of original wartime testimonies and stories as part of the Memory of the Nation initiative to visitors, who will also be able to listen to the original radio recording of ‘Calling all Czechs’ which marked the start of the Prague Uprising.
Finally, the outdoor exhibition ‘The National Theatre under the Protectorate’ can also be viewed until the end of June on the Václav Havel piazzetta, right next to the theater buildings.
Music as remembrance
As part of the Memory of the Nation project, set up by the Post Bellum non-profit in cooperation with Czech Radio and the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, the day-long event ‘Let’s Not Forget 80’ will take place on May 8 in the lower part of Wenceslas Square.
Accompanied by outdoor displays of war and occupation stories, the event will feature speeches and concerts throughout the entire afternoon and early evening. More information about this and related happenings on the initiative’s website.
The Czech Senate will hold an Open House Day on Thursday. Anyone curious to visit the halls of the upper chamber of parliament will have free admission from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Last but not least, the opening concert of the Prague Proms 2025 International Music Festival will be held on May 8, at 7 p.m. at the Municipal House, with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra set to perform an exciting thematic program made up for the most of World War II-set movie soundtracks – from The Pianist and Schindler’s List to Pearl Harbor, A Bridge Too Far, Empire of the Sun or Saving Private Ryan.
An lively program where Hans Zimmer or John Williams’ global soundtrack hits will mix and mingle with Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony and the like.
