Generation 60

Generation 60, a documentary made by the film director Peter Hledík, talks about one generation of graduates of the prestigious Industrial School of Nuclear Technology in Ječná Street in Prague. It was founded in 1955 by the communist government and functioned until 1985. In the period of its activity, it educated hundreds of specialists, including a number of world-famous personalities. Nowadays Europe lacks tens of thousands of specialists in this field.

The documentary follows the lives of the former graduates of this school, traces their work abroad, maps their varied fates (the life in exile, in communist prison, and in the current conditions of freedom). It is not only a portrait of several exceptional men and women (it talks about their ideas and fulfilment of their dreams), but it also documents the times in which they lived.

Thanks to the unique archival materials it captures the atmosphere of the turn of the 50’s and the 60’s in our country, the liberal conditions of the Prague Spring and the harsh normalization that followed. The picture takes place also in the present, as in 2009 the meeting of the former graduates of this prestigious school took place. This exceptional film about the phenomenon of nuclear physics also reflects the status of scientists in the society.