Directed by Věra Chytilová • 1990 • Czechoslovakia

Věra Chytilová employs a mix of photographs, archival footage, and reenactment to tell the story of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, the Czechoslovak politician, sociologist, and philosopher who served as the first elected president of Czechoslovakia following the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918. Made in the wake of the 1989 Velvet Revolution that brought about the end of one-party communist rule in Czechoslovakia, TGM THE LIBERATOR pays tribute to a national icon who has come to represent the highest ideals of democracy.