Rudolf Mihle (1937-2008) was one of the most important Czech amateur filmmakers. Some of his films were critical of the communist regime and society, and so could not be publicly screened. This was also the case for the film “The First Hours of Occupation”, which was filmed during the first days of the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops in August 1968. The images of the dramatic events from the streets of Prague are accompanied by Czechoslovak Radio broadcasts from the time. The film was banned and could not be publicly screened until 1990. In the same year, Rudolf Mihle received several awards for this film, including at the World Nonprofessional Film Festival UNICA 90 in Sweden, and at the Amateur Film Festival in Hradec Králové, Czech Republic. In August 2018, the film with English subtitles was published on YouTube by Czech Radio as part of its “Project ʼ68”.
Český rozhlas. 2018. "Klid a rozvaha jsou naší největší zbraní." Last modified August 23. https://1968.rozhlas.cz/klid-a-rozvaha-jsou-nasi-nejvetsi-zbrani-podivejte-se-na-unikatni-zabery-z-21-7595248.
Národní filmový archiv. 2002. "Mihle Rudolf (1937-2008): Inventář." Accessible at http://nfa.cz/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Mihle-Rudolf.pdf.
