Fjällräven
Into the Wild Since the 1960’s
DOP & Photographer
Director: Jakub Jirasek
Producer: Adam Rygl (Stink Prague)
The 60’s
This is a fiction story based on Pavel Liska’s true Events.
It was Friday, July 16, 1965, and my dad was gearing up for a trek into the mountains in west Czechoslovakia.
Back in the day, my dad got a brand-new backpack with an aluminum frame from his buddy Åke Nordin in 🇸🇪. Åke shot him a message saying, "You've got yourself a slick pack for those Eastern Bloc mountains... and give a shoutout to your fjällrävar (mountain foxes)...
As Åke climbed the entrepreneurial ladder, he started feeling uneasy about the whole deal of cranking out consumer goods on a massive scale—seemed unnatural (you know, production, shipping, disposal, the works). Back then, nobody really cared much about ecology.
it was a whole different era, people puffing away on cigarettes even up in airplanes. Long story short, sustainable development was already on this guy's radar way back then.
The 70’s
May 1, 1971
Here's my old man again, on a trip with my mom in Bohemian forest. Apparently, that's where they
conceived me, and it probably went down like that because I came into the world on January 29, 1972.
Here's dad carrying Åke's invention from 🇸🇪 on his back. The Communists didn't want to let him have it.
Åke was the enemy, an imperialist. The 60’s turned into the 70’s, normalization tightened its grip, borders closed.
The 80’s
It's a warm Easter weekend on April 11, 1985.
You don't see me and Mom, only Dad.
Mom and Dad got divorced four years ago.
I'm 14, and I'm out with the Young Pioneers on an extraordinary Easter collection of old iron.
It's organized by our Russian teacher Fučíková, and Dad ordered me to go so I could score
a solid B in Russian and be eligible for high school entrance exams.
Dad, on the other hand, spent Easter in his own way, hiking with his faithful buddy, carrying that old backpack from Åke in 🇸🇪. Dad used to say that when the Communists go to hell, and he didn't usually talk dirty in front of me, our first trip would be straight to Åke's place in Örnsköldsvik. And he promised to take me along.
Since Dad was swimming from March to November, this beautiful day was twice as good.
The 90’s
The Communists went to hell, just as Dad predicted—or maybe he wished it more than actually believed it.
So many possibilities suddenly opened up for us, including borders.
Dad waited for the first summer, worried it might freeze over there, and headed straight to his old buddy from his youth, Åke Nordin in 🇸🇪. He and Dad saw each other after 23 years!
But this isn't Dad anymore. This is October 1996. I traveled from Brno to a recovery center near Bohemia forest to visit my little brother. I had less than a hundred bucks with me and had to make it back by the next day, by 6 PM, to HaDivadlo, where we were performing "Several Stories from Béda Jelínek's Life" that evening. I got soaked that day.
I hitchhiked to save money for food and, most importantly, for all eventualities, the train back. I was saved that day by a woman, or was it a girl...?
She was around 30 and was a complete revelation for me at the time, like she fell from the sky. Her name was Vera, and she looked incredibly, absolutely stunningly similar to a girl, a woman... whom I really like.
By the way, she's an actress too. I knew her when she was a little girl... I used to "guard" her like a president once. Now she's a grown woman, a mother, but still just as hit.
Dad & Son: Pavel Liska
Vera & Lisa: Jenovefa Bokova
Present
Lisa Ekman from Fjällräven called me, saying she was in Prague and had this idea she wanted to share with me. And since Lisa is a passionate naturalist, no surprise considering where she works, she also wanted to explore our Czech landscape. She asked if I could take her camping, for a short trip, so she could tell me about it. Well, it felt odd to me, but we set off...