Dear friends of good movies!

The 29th edition of the European Film Days – that’s quite a number of years now and proof that the organisers are doing a great job and that they are preparing a great festival, which I am honoured to patronize again this year.

Good films are above all stories, but cinema itself is a wonderful story of courage, pioneering, glory and oblivion.

It all started with the story of Giovanni Battista della Porta, who introduced his camera obscura five centuries ago. He scared everyone with his “conjured devil” and almost ended up in the clutches of the Inquisition. And it was the pioneer and artist Georges Méliès who gave a story to what was then a technical invention. But his love of film drove him into poverty and oblivion for many years. But because his life was a unique story in itself, it was rightly crowned by the award of the Legion of Honour.

Let us remember the stories of those who made European films the stories they are today.Petr Hejma, Mayor of Prague 1

Yours Petr Hejma, Mayor of the City district of Prague 1