Jakub Jansy's video essay does not deal with K. H. Mácha on a biographical level, nor does it search for the key features of his work. It focuses on his role as a symbol that permeates modern Czech history. During his lifetime, Mácha published only one work, Máj, the rest were published posthumously. Many times more extensive than his own work is the work of literary scholars and theorists. They often treat Mácha's legacy and personae with a period-recognisable ideological handwriting. Through these theoretical works, we have the opportunity to uncover the key demands and motives for the reactivation and reinforcement of the poet's legacy as a symbol. The subject of the video essay is M. C. Putna's text "Whose Mácha? Some Material for a Critique of Ideological Criticism" from 1993. Putna says: "In Czech culture, however, we have an absolutely crucial problem - MÁCHA. Everyone wants to have their own Mácha. There simply cannot be a history of Czech literature without Mácha. And so a whole series of Máchas have appeared before our historical eyes." In this case, Mácha functions in a similar way to the personality of Karel Gott, symbolizing the "atmosphere of the times" across Helena Třeštíková's time-lapse documentaries.
Putna describes several examples of ideologically tinged views of Mácha. Mácha's personality and work: he distinguishes between nationalist, surrealist and revolutionary Mácha, materialist and diarist Mácha, and contrastingly, Catholic Mácha. Jans' video essay visually exploits these ideological appropriations and demonstrates how easy and respectable it is to "dress" one's hero in a preconceived interpretive and ideological costume.

Concept: Jakub Jansa
Directed by Jakub Jansa
Screenplay: Jakub Jansa, Alice Krajčírová
Director of photography: Kryštof Hlůže
Editing: Sebastian Kučkovský
Music: Oliver Torr, David Štrobach
Sound mastering: Oliver Torr
Costumes: Karolína Juříková
Costume "Mácha the Catholic": Vojtěch Bašta
Costume "Nationalist Macha": Zdeněk Marek
Performance: Kamil Nábělek, Jan Kostiha, Markéta Vutrů, Trin Alt, Timur Aloev, Vladimír Nezdařil, Daniel Bátrla
Agáta Hrnčířová
Mihir Khulkarni
Steadycam: Filip Rybář
Lights: Tomas Prajsler
Muah: Nela Nešetřilová
Sound Recording: Václav Kopelec
Costume assistance: Kristýna Lovasová

Thanks to Panalux, Biofilms, Czech Radio, Overall Office