Pravda

Put together as crudely and urgently as an agit-prop poster, this analysis of Czechoslovakia after Dubcek finds Godard's Dziga Vertov Group beginning its struggle to formulate an uncompromised, revolutionary, theoretical film practice. On the soundtrack, the voices of 'Vladimir' and 'Rosa' argue dialectically in an attempt to arrive at the 'truth' about Dubcek revisionism and Russian imperialism. Meanwhile the images are what Godard has since called 'political tourism' in post-'68 Czechoslovakia, giving way to a blank screen whenever the country cannot furnish a politically correct signifier. A self-confessed failure on its own terms, the film is none the less vital as a step towards a valid form of political cinema.