Under Underground

The documentary explores the concept of 'underground' in former (Czecho-)Slovakia, examining its meaning and its link to civil defense structures under the city. A biology student now manages some of these sites. Testimonies from an architect, a filmmaker, and a singer further illuminate the multifaceted nature of the underground world.

'At the beginning, I had an idea to talk about people who were opposing the communist regime in my country, former Czechoslovakia, but they were not part of the official underground—dissident group. They lived in small towns, they weren't in the centre of the action, in Prague or Bratislava, they were somewhere in the regions and they had their own sometimes obscure ways of expressing their inner freedom. They didn't attract the attention of the establishment and therefore nobody knew about them. This seemed to me at the time a sympathetic form of resistance.

Also, I wondered what actually happened to all of the nuclear shelters after the end of the Cold War. Back in elementary school, we had to practise all sorts of ridiculous exercises with gas masks. I found people in Bratislava at the Ministry of the Interior who kept these shelters in standby mode, even if ordinary people already forgot about them. I connected those mysterious spaces with the narrative of undercover, invisible dissidents who could use them for self-expression.' - Viera ČÁKANYOVÁ