The Confession

Artur Ludvik, a high-ranking communist and vice-minister, begins to sense that he is being watched. He gathers with a circle of friends who also hold top government positions, and they realize the monitoring is pervasive. The realization even extends to the StB chief, signaling a sweeping crackdown.

Artur is arrested by an organization that declares itself 'above the ruling party' and is placed in solitary confinement for months without being told why. The isolation is designed to break him and extract information under pressure.

Lise and the couple’s children are kept ignorant of the charges against Artur and are pressured to cooperate for their own safety. Lise is removed from her job as a radio announcer and forced to work in a factory, illustrating how the regime controls everyday life.

Artur is subjected to routine brainwashing, including sleep deprivation and forced physical activity. He is pressured to confess to imaginary crimes as interrogators tighten the squeeze.

Artur learns that his friends have also been arrested and are implicating him in crimes against the state. The encroachment climbs higher as the group is turned into a tool of the regime's narrative.

After crushing pressure, Artur confesses and is groomed for a public 'trial.' Interrogators coach him to memorize answers, while he receives meals, vitamin injections, and a sunlamp to restore his appearance after years of wasting away.

The trial is broadcast live, with Lise forced to record a statement disavowing her husband and praising the party. The prisoners are sentenced to death or life imprisonment, and Artur is given life.

The prisoners threaten to appeal, but court-appointed lawyers tell them the sentences are for the party's benefit and won’t be enforced if they do not appeal. The show trial sustains the regime's control over public perception.

Between 1956 and 1963, some prisoners are gradually freed and rehabilitated, while the rest are executed and cremated. Their ashes are scattered along a road, a lasting symbol of the purge and its secrecy.

The architects of the ordeal, including Kohoutek the interrogator, begin to face their own persecutions as the regime reconsiders its abuses. The purge leaves a double memory: guilt for the perpetrators and caution for the survivors.

Artur encounters Kohoutek years after the events, who tries to downplay his role by claiming he only followed orders. The exchange underscores the persistence and manipulation of blame within the system.

In 1968, Artur completes his memoirs and returns to publish them, hoping to shed light on those years. He arrives in Prague amid the Prague Spring as the Warsaw Pact invasion begins, complicating any chance of a truth-seeking reckoning.