Facing up to Apocalypses

How should a focus titled The Day After be curated at a time when we’re all still anxiously awaiting “the day after”? Well unsurprisingly, none of my previous experience had prepared me to face this extraordinary and unprecedented challenge.

We never considered a festival programme grimly packed with nihilism, fear, and cynicism, not even back in autumn 2019 when we had selected Fest Anča 2020’s The Day After theme (little did we know then how prescient it would soon become). Instead, we opted to portray the confrontation of numerous global and personal apocalypses and losses, the meeting of new
beginnings – through humour (often black), optimism (often misplaced), and mostly keeping calm and level-headed. These personal traits stem either from a rich seam of valuable life experience or boundless naïveté: i.e. each person plays to their unique strengths.

Eliška Děcká
Fest Anča 2020’s Focus Curator

English subtitles