Through a Glass, Darkly: The Aestheticization of Atrocity in ‘Only Beautiful Things to Look At’

Film and Animation

The 1980s in Czechoslovakia were a period of stark contradictions. While the surface of society was often characterized by a specific socialist chic—distinctive fashions, Brutalist architecture, and a quiet, domestic refinement—the state was simultaneously engaged in a brutal, systemic campaign of racial engineering. At the heart of this was a prog