• 16/02/2023
• By wizewebsite
• 292 Views

The Czech program about "obscene mothers" was missing. It shows that even famous actresses get yelled at by children<

The show's creative producer Lucie Macháčková and its moderator Tereza Dočkalová both started working on the multi-part series without any mothering experience. At the time, the Thalia-awarded actress and presenter was just preparing for her role as a parent, she was already in an advanced stage of pregnancy. Now they both have small children and with their show, based on interviews with well-known and less well-known mothers, they want to give women confidence and motivation to breastfeed wherever it is needed, and offer a space to let off steam and emancipate themselves.

What are the biggest maternal taboos you opened up in the show?

Macháčková: That is a good question. For me, it is the moment when Nina Špitálníková (Korean scholar, editor's note) talked about the fact that she was pregnant, but she did not feel for the child, she saw it as a difficulty. If her partner at the time hadn't processed her a little, she might have had an abortion. When he started forcing her to have an abortion, she couldn't, but she still didn't want the child and was unhappy about it. Being pregnant but not wanting a child at the same time is taboo. Now she's a super mom and she's probably very close to her son Malcolm. I thought she was brave.

Dočkalová: For me, the most difficult thing is the loss of a child. The documentary filmmaker Hana Muchová, who had an abortion with an injection in the abdomen, coped with it very beautifully, but listening to how it happened and what it cost was crazy. You don't like to imagine it and you don't like to let it weigh on you. She is making a documentary about it herself, and she said, which I find wonderful, that our society has cleaned up death in hospitals. That hit me hard.

Did a woman speak on your show who greatly inspired you?

Macháčková: For me, the most important interview was with the already mentioned Nina Špitálníková, when she told about how she went to Spain with her eight-week-old Malcolm as a single, abandoned mother and then traveled around Asia with him. I was sitting on the floor listening and thinking that this is totally cool and that if it's about being a mom and getting on with my life and working on my projects, then I want that too. I have a job that I really enjoy, and I've always seen it as either or.

Nina Špitálníková: Women in the DPRK are happy when they don't have periods. Hygiene is scary Woman

Dočkalová: I found the episode with dads very inspiring, which will only be in the second six episodes. I invited Jonáš Zbořil and Bohdan Bláhovec (journalist and director - editor's note). I thought it was great how they thought about it, the way they talked about care, which in our society is mostly only the responsibility of women and we women are often thoughtlessly the first in line for it. It was nice to hear that they don't feel that way, they don't take it for granted and they really like taking care of the children. They have no problem looking, feeling and acting like dads. I thought we had some hope as humanity. The interview with the actress Anička Císařovská, who described her silent pregnancies, was also important to me.

I heard her story for the first time at our friends' wedding and it seemed to me that it totally intersected with our show. I brought it to the dramaturg Katka Krobová and she tried it. It turned out to be a wonderful idea. It's painful, but also terribly inspiring. In motherhood, the hardest thing is to be able to listen to your intuition, and I think that's the theme of this piece.

Macháčková: I was shocked by how common the loss is in the early stages of pregnancy. It's not talked about much, I didn't know it, and I think I'm fairly educated. There should be some education about the fact that it can happen and that it is difficult, but that when it does happen, it is possible to find psychotherapeutic help.

The creative producer was most inspired by the episode with the Korean actress Nina Špitálníková, who is raising her son Malcolm as a single mother. | Photo: Czech Television

In a number of episodes, there is a certain criticism of medical care, whether in the case of births or the aforementioned abortions. Have you considered inviting a doctor to express his opinion?

Macháčková: I understand what you are saying. We tried to put the greatest emphasis on the story of a specific woman, on sharing. We are not trying to find out where the medical care went wrong. But in some episodes there are doctors, in other series we filmed about postpartum depression and there we have a psychiatrist, the doctor also tells us about the birth of a dead baby.

Dočkalová: There are two camps that have their truths and today they are kind of pre-sucked, there is no healthy debate between them. We thought about inviting some nurses, but it would be silly to take one side or the other.

Trot: I was cruel to women, I had to tame the stallions. Helping in the home is sexyWoman

But it may happen, for example, that someone accuses you of promoting home births...

Dočkalová: I was afraid that it wouldn't sound like that, but yesterday I saw the first episode, where the midwife Alžběta Samková speaks, who says that she does home births, but that she herself would never dare to do it and that it is up to each individual. It's great that it comes from the hostess and we don't have to do the balancing act.

Macháčková: She says there that she would not go into it, because she knows very well what can happen, that postpartum complications can come very unexpectedly. We're not quite an "ezo" show that necessarily fights against the system, but in some episodes we point out that it would be great if there was better communication between the mother and the doctors and if her feelings and instincts were given more weight. It's not very nice when someone tells you: You have a hidden pregnancy, here's your application form, it's the door over there, bye. I understand that doctors can't hold every woman's hand, but it's something worth pointing out. In some works, we also deal with problems in the social system.

Dočkalová: I think that we have a great healthcare system in the Czech Republic and it is at a tremendous level, but criticism of communication is appropriate. In all the professionalism and brutal specialization, this is sometimes forgotten.

Tereza Dočkalová got an offer to host a program about motherhood when she was pregnant herself. It struck her as great timing. | Photo: Klára Cvrčková

Was the main motivation why you made Protivný prostý matky the feeling that a similar show was missing on the Czech scene?

Macháčková: Certainly. I prepared the show as a childless woman. I was surrounded by a lot of questions like when I will have children and why I don't have them yet. I felt that the woman-mother is depicted either as the perfect supermom, who with a smile on her face sacrifices her free time and career to make organic food with great enthusiasm. There is nothing else that fulfills her, and if there is, she is a bad mother. The second media image of the mother is a torn and hysterical woman. Neither seemed realistic to me. I wanted to make a show that would focus on the mother not only as a robot who cares, sacrifices and deals with babysitters. I wanted to reflect on the changes a woman goes through and focus on her psyche, on things that concern only her.

Dočkalová: Another cliché is the image of a mother who manages everything gracefully, is always tidy and looks pretty. It's an unattainable role model that frustrates many parents. Lucka originally called me about another program, which she also had logged into the web platform of Czech Television. I told her that I was going to be a mother and that I probably wouldn't have time for anything. She replied: Wait, I have a completely different job for you. It felt like good timing to me and I was excited.

Emancipation does not take place, households have returned to the old order. Women clean up the family again

At the beginning of the piece, there is always your monologue, where you express various concerns already in the advanced stage of pregnancy, such as whether you will not have sex after giving birth or whether you will still be Tereza or just a mother. It was about your own thoughts, did you want to answer something for yourself before your child is born?

Dočkalová: They are a bit generalized, because I am not a prototype, I am a bit strange and my motherhood is like that. In principle, however, these are questions that every person who is expecting a child is interested in and wants to answer. I have to say that the anticipation of the first year of motherhood lined with these conversations was great. In a lot of things, our guests and their stories helped me to relax, to find an original way and not to worry about things that I cannot and will never be able to do.

Some viewers reportedly had a problem with the title of the show...

Dočkalová: I just skimmed through it, I'm not very good at heists, and when I found out that Protivný prostý mother would get a similar heist as Kokoti, I turned it off.

Macháčková: On the contrary, I love it. We have created a Facebook group that should be used for interaction and sharing in the future. One man wrote to us there that he was crying, that ČT supports a program with such a name and that he would prefer the program Něžné matky s láská. I explained it to him gently and with love. The title is a bit controversial, but it's hyperbole. Every mom is obnoxious and rude at times. But the show is not obscene, there are very few obscene words in it, on the contrary, I think it is quite nice. It is a space where we can allow ourselves to let off steam and talk about topics that are difficult. It is also an expression of emancipation, a woman is sometimes obnoxious and rude, but that does not mean that she is less of a mother.

Dočkalová: In addition, after the pandemic, many millennials are already parents who need their Sam at home for hipsters, and with the name Protivný prostý matky you can reach them more easily.

Actress Anna Císařovská spoke about repeated concealed pregnancies and natural abortion. | Photo: Czech Television

Several hostesses are breastfeeding during the filmed program. Did you want to "throw a pitchfork" into the never-ending debate about whether it belongs to the public or not?

Dočkalová: I hope that this has ended the debate. It's normal for people to drink in public and we shouldn't discriminate against children who also need to drink. I breastfed everywhere, and I even made a collection of it where it was the funniest. It's best while walking, for example in the middle of a festival, that happened too.

Macháčková: I don't know if this will end the debate, maybe we should ask the gentleman who said that women should be gentle and loving. But I don't think he saw the show. It's funny that this debate exists. This is our contribution to it. There are babies here who are breastfed and it's totally fine. We wanted the show to be baby friendly, so the children of the hostesses and staff girls hang out there. It's chaos at times and it's generated a lot of interesting situations. If we said "Jesus Christ, if you want to breastfeed, we'll turn off the cameras", we'd be completely stupid. We want to give women confidence in this. I don't breastfeed, but if I did, I would do it everywhere.

She found a sperm donor on the net. The man lied about his ethnicity, that's why the woman abandoned the childWoman

The show also has children running around freely, which can be distracting. Was the intention to keep the shoot as natural as possible and in the spirit of how to capture "real" motherhood?

Macháčková: We stopped the cameras very little, we let it flow, because it happened to us that when we stopped the cameras, something brilliant happened. Sometimes it was a problem, the children played with toys that were too loud, so we got into situations where we wondered if this authenticity was still "okay" when the guest could not be heard. When we said that we wanted to shoot with children, everyone told us that we were crazy and that children were a distraction. But maybe some mom will look at this and say to herself: So even this famous actress's child screams just like me.

Dočkalová: You put that together nicely, that's nice. It is a true alliance that our program would like to highlight. That we are all the same and we all make mistakes.

You might be interested in: How cruel is illegal abortion. The award-winning film is relevant again

The controversial 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days was shot by the Romanian director Cristian Mungui. Thirteen years after its premiere, Netflix is ​​also offering it. | Video: Kamil Fila, Blahoslav Baťa