The document about Kaplický will be available to viewers from mid-April

Prague - Three years after the results of the competition for the construction of the new National Library, two years after it was rejected by politicians, and a year after the death of its author Jan Kaplický, the film Eye Over Prague will premiere. The director Olga Špátová named her time-lapse documentary about the famous architect after his yet unrealized design for a modern building in Prague.
    The film about the last two years of Kaplický's life, filled not only with the fight for a progressive building, will enter theaters on April 15 and is expected to be one of the opening films of this year's Febiofest. The architect's wife, Eliška Kaplický, also collaborated as a producer. The story begins on March 2, 2007, when Jan Kaplický, along with the Future Systems studio, was declared the winner of the international architectural competition for the new NK building in Prague's Clementinum.
    The film chronologically presents the development of events surrounding the project, including how drastically opinions on it changed among some participants, particularly Prague's Mayor Pavel Bém. Viewers will see how the appearance of the library evolved and how the architect tearfully presented the design to journalists in his homeland, which he had left during the time of oppression.
    The author captured moments when Kaplický, despite being the winner of the international competition, had to defend his project in front of officials and politicians after President Václav Klaus publicly condemned it.
    In the film, Kaplický recounts his childhood during the war and the rise of communists to power in 1948. He lived in Střešovice, 200 meters from the Müller villa, one of the important buildings of modern architecture in the Czech Republic, designed by Adolf Loos. He played with the owners' daughter; in 2007, he married film producer Eliška Fuchsová in the villa.
    During his studies and during the occupation of the country by Warsaw Pact troops, he was accompanied by singer and architect Pavel Bobek. In the film, he rejects the criticism from politicians who pointed out that the building is too bold and inappropriate for historic Prague. "Who is more conservative than the British queen? And yet she agreed to have her portrait appear next to Kaplický's Selfridges on a postage stamp," he said.
    Kaplický, happy in his personal life but weary of the political game surrounding his project, suddenly died last year on January 14, the day his daughter Johanka was born. He can no longer fight for his project, but Eliška wants to carry on his legacy and continue to strive for the building.
    Unlike the former director of the NK and initiator of the new building project Vlastimil Ježek, even today's leadership of the library does not wish for the construction of a new building; it wants to pursue the path of expanding the repository and renovating the historic Clementinum.
    It is still unclear which building will be the last to be constructed according to Kaplický's design. The Ferrari museum is starting to be built in Modena, and in South Bohemia, funding is being sought for the realization of Kaplický's concert hall project. Reportedly, a club and residential building in Konopiště should also be close to realization.