A rare opportunity to see Juraj Jakubisko’s landmark 1969 film Birds, Orphans and Fools and meet legendary Slovak actress Magda Vášáryová, who stars in one of the defining roles of her early career. The screening will be followed by a conversation moderated by Christopher Small, curator of a soon-to-be-announced Czechoslovak retrospective at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).
Birds, Orphans and Fools / dir. Juraj Jakubisko / 1969 / drama, allegory / Czechoslovakia, France / Slovak with English subtitles / 78 min.
A playful yet unsettling allegory, Birds, Orphans and Fools follows two young men and Martha, played by Magda Vášáryová, as they retreat into a world of games, disguises, humor, and provocation. Beneath the film’s exuberance, however, lies a darker meditation on violence, broken ideals, and the fragility of freedom.
Written by Juraj Jakubisko and Karol Sidon and made in the turbulent period following 1968, the film was banned by the communist regime for more than two decades. When it returned to the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in 1990, it received the FIPRESCI Award.
The evening also celebrates the remarkable career of Magda Vášáryová, one of the most important Slovak actresses of her generation, who later became a diplomat and prominent public figure. Following the screening, the audience will have the opportunity to meet her in person during a conversation exploring the film’s turbulent history and her extraordinary journey from acting to diplomacy and public life.
Magda Vášáryová
Magda Vášáryová is an acclaimed Slovak actress, diplomat, author, and public figure. She first gained widespread recognition for her role in Marketa Lazarová and went on to become one of the defining faces of Czechoslovak cinema. Her major film roles include Birds, Orphans and Fools, Radúz and Mahulena, On the Comet, Rusalka, Cutting It Short, and Quiet Happiness.
After 1989, she entered diplomatic and political life, serving as ambassador to Austria and Poland and remaining actively engaged in public affairs. In 2026, she received a Ph.D. in historical sociology from the Faculty of Humanities at Charles University in Prague.
Christopher Small
Christopher Small is a writer and film programmer living in Prague, Czech Republic. He is responsible for editorial and publications at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland and has overseen the Locarno Critics Academy since 2017. For four years, he was the international curator for the documentary VOD platform DAFilms.com. As an independent programmer, he has curated retrospectives for the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), MFF Cinematik, and Sheffield DocFest, also serving, in the last case, on the selection committee. Writing about culture and politics, he has regularly contributed to a number of international outlets for over a decade. He is the founder and publisher of Outskirts Film Magazine, a print publication devoted to the cinema of the past and present.
