© 2026 The Couch Critic
Status
Released
Release
2021
Runtime
1h 45m
Available options inUS
"The Art of Dissent" celebrates the resilience and power of artistic engagement in Czechoslovakia before and after the 1968 Soviet-led invasion. The documentary's main protagonists - Václav Havel, banned singer Marta Kubisová, and the underground rock group the Plastic People of the Universe (PPU) - became the most recognizable dissidents during the 1970-80s. Havel bridged the disparate clusters of individuals and fused the literary, musical, political, and philosophical nonviolent elements into a hybrid network that eventually toppled the totalitarian regime in 1989.
9 Cast Members
Timothy Garton Ash
Self - Interviewee
Joan Bakewell
BBC Interviewer - BBC Archival Film
Shirley Bassey
Self - Subject (archive footage)
Kamila Bendova
Self - Interviewee
Mikhail Gorbachev
Self - Subject (archive footage)
Tenzin Gyatso
Self - Subject (archive footage)
Robert F. Kennedy
Self - Subject (archive footage)
Martin Luther King Jr.
Self - Subject (archive footage)
Frank Zappa
Self - Subject (archive footage)
