The Unbearable Lightness of Being(1988)
dir. Philip Kaufman
Freedom, love, and the impossible weight of choosing.
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In 1968 Prague, a womanizing surgeon, his devoted wife, and his free-spirited mistress navigate love and betrayal as the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia forces each of them toward political choices they can no longer avoid. Adapted from Milan Kundera's novel.
Why it’s here
Punk in treating eroticism and political courage as inseparable — Tomas's promiscuity and his refusal to recant are both, in Kundera's logic, expressions of the same resistance to being owned. Pedagogical in showing how an occupation reshapes even the most private choices.
Where This Film Lives
Read Alongside
Books that share a topic, theme, or setting with this film.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
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History keeps overwriting your choices. Live anyway.
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A Court of Thorns and Roses
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Survival instincts don't stop at the Wall.
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Blankets
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The memoir that proved comics could break your heart.
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Breathless
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A teen girl writes her own story.
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Doctor Zhivago
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Love and revolution eat each other alive.
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Ferdydurke
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Society made you small. This is how.
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Forever...
Judy Blume
The teen novel they banned for telling the truth.
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Heart of a Dog
Mikhail Bulgakov
The revolution turned a dog into a bureaucrat.
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