Muž s dýmkou

It would be inaccurate and maybe also unfortunate to call the film A Man with a Pipe a portrait. The documentary about the life of Czech diplomat Josef Korbel, the father of Madeleine Albright is, to say the least, interesting in that it does not overload the audience with biographical facts. Instead, the film focuses on the debate over Korbel’s nationality, a reflection on the family relationships and the political context. A great deal of footage is devoted to Madeleine Albright’s testimony. She describes the complicated relationship she had with her father, who was also her greatest role model. Fate twice forced the principled diplomat to emigrate from his native Czechoslovakia. Nevertheless, no citizenship could rob him of his intellect and identity. The audience can therefore appreciate all the more, the fact that he was never against his home nation. It was no coincidence that he moved to Denver (the capital of Colorado), the landscape of which reminded him of his native land. As a result, it is a sad paradox that Czech society tends to forget about the man whose knowledge helped him to bring up two female ministers of foreign affairs and who never forgot where he came from. (Academia Film Olomouc)