Studio zpravodajského filmu Praha

Within the cultural policy framework of the 1950s, Mikoláš Aleš was, in terms of fine art, equivalent to Bedřich Smetana in music and Alois Jirásek in history and literature. This biopic presents Aleš as an artist of a devoted to his nation and its folk traditions. The movie depicts the most important events of the celebration of “Aleš’s Year” (in honour of the hundredth anniversary of Aleš’s birth), which was conceptually prepared first and foremost by the then education minister Zdeněk Nejedlý, who was also a crucial figure in terms of cultural policy.

Besides presenting an actual exhibition, this film about a Monument of National Literatuře also presents an interpretation of the history of Czech literature that was subject to the mores of that time. It looks at the exhibition chronologically, it comments on documents from the beginnings of the national literature up to the 1950s, emphasises the importance of the relationship of the present time with the national cultural tradition. It labels the museum itself as a “people’s university” and draws attention to its educational role.