Worth seeing. Penzion Rut reminds of the joys and sorrows of Miloš Forman's family

Staré Splavy started to become a popular spa resort already at the beginning of the twentieth century, but the golden times did not come until twenty years later. And thanks to the foresight of Anna, the Formans bought one of the first building plots, which is why they found a really beautiful plot of land.

Shortly after the construction of the family villa was completed, the growing popularity of Mách Lake inspired the enterprising Anna to take the next step. She decided to turn the house into a holiday home. Moreover, the first Czech one, because the guesthouses in the nearby area had German owners.

Pohoda u Máchova jezera

Rudolf also contributed to the fame of the popular water reservoir near Doks. He did not like the then-used name Hiršperský rybník, so he wrote an article in the local newspaper in which he suggested that the body of water be named after the poet Karel Hynk Mácha. It was this pond that became the inspiration for his Maya.

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In February 1932, the Formans' third son was born. Miloš joined Blahoslav and Pavlo. And according to the entry in the guest book, the little boy became the first guest of the boarding house that year. From his birth until 1950, Miloš spent every summer at Mách's lake. He and his mother left for Staré Splavy already in May to fix up a guest house.

Dad Rudolf and older brothers joined them at the beginning of the holidays. They had no shortage of visitors. There would be famous personalities among them, such as the Čapková brothers.

Victims of war

Already six years later, the Munich Agreement put an end to the holiday fun at Lake Mach. In accordance with it, the former Czechoslovakia had to cede its borderland to Germany, including the area of ​​Lake Mách. A year later, the war began.

Rudolf Forman became involved in resistance activities after the occupation, and was arrested in 1940. He was also imprisoned in Česká Lípa, among other places. Two years later, based on a tip-off, the Gestapo also arrested Anna Forman at the Rut boarding house. A brave woman came to say goodbye to her little son in his room. The pretext was the administration of the medicine.

The last time the future famous director was able to meet his mother was during her imprisonment in Prague's Petschk Palace. In 1943, she died of typhus in the Auschwitz concentration camp. Rudolf died in the Buchenwald concentration camp in 1944.

Relatives took over the care of the orphaned boy. Miloš lived part of the war in Náchod with his uncle and aunt. Later, the Čáslav family of the director of the local gas plant Hluchy took in the boy. The family boarding house in Staré Splavy was taken over by the Germans. During the bombing of Berlin, it became a refuge for the women and children of German officers.

When the war ended, the older brothers Pavel and Blahoslav began to repair the villa and restore operations. However, room number 16 belonged exclusively to the youngest Miloš, who at that time lived in a youth home and boarding school for victims of the Second World War - King Jiří's Central Bohemian College in Poděbrady.

However, even this phase of life did not last long, after the rise of the communists in 1948, the Formans lost their house. The paths of the future world-famous director's family and the Rut boarding house parted ways for many years. Miloš could stay in a single room. When he came of age in 1953, he also had to move out of it.

Life in emigration

A handsome young man wanted to study theater, but they only took him to screenwriting at FAMU. He was more attracted to directing than writing screenplays, and with his first films Konkurs and Černý Petr, he captivated the audience in what was then Czechoslovakia, and won awards abroad as well. The film Hoří, má panenko was selected for the main competition of the Cannes festival, and was even nominated for an Oscar.

In 1967, Miloš Forman received permission to travel to the USA, where he was to shoot his first American film for Paramount. The American visa allowed him to return to his family, which remained behind the Iron Curtain in Prague. The last time he spent Christmas with the twins Petr and Matěj was in 1970.

The film Taking Off, which he shot in the USA, was a flop in cinemas. At that time, the director's American visa was expiring. However, conditions in socialist Czechoslovakia worsened after the occupation by Soviet troops, Miloš therefore decided to stay overseas.

The beginnings were not easy, but his next film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest won five Oscars. And the way to the incredible success of the boy from Čáslav and a lot of great films was open. While filming Amadeus, which won eight Oscars, he returned to Prague for a few months in 1985, although his previous visa applications had been unsuccessful.

Older brother Pavel also set out into the world, who, although he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, left without a diploma due to political checks after 1948. In the same year that his twelve-years-younger brother set out into the world, he was able to go to Pavel also took a six-month sightseeing trip around the world. He was especially excited about Australia.

When Soviet tanks stood on Wenceslas Square a year later, he chose the continent on the other side of the world as his family's new home. His paintings are represented in a number of world collections.

The life of Miloš's eldest brother Blahoslav, who worked as a teacher in Čáslav, ended tragically in 1960. During a school trip to the Low Tatras, a violent blizzard and thick fog caught the group while climbing Ďumbier. Most of the children were resuscitated, but the body of the teacher and three other pupils were found by rescuers without signs of life.

Family boarding house

The Forman family got the boarding house in Staré Splavy back in restitution in 1991. Blahoslava, the daughter of the eldest of the Forman brothers, took care of the resurrection of its glory. Miloš and Pavel supported the active niece during the restoration. Both enjoyed returning to Staré Splavy as long as their health allowed.

Pavel died in Brisbane in 2008, Miloš ten years later. Mrs. Blahoslava's son Adam Forman took over the care of the boarding house years ago. "It is an honor for me to manage this house where I grew up and to welcome our guests here as the fourth generation," he says.

Pension Rut shines again For the entire Forman family, it was a great satisfaction when the villa returned to their ownership. Unfortunately, it only remotely resembled the elegant house built by Anna and Rudolf. The communists first set up a children's sanatorium in the charming villa, then it became a dormitory for vacationers of the Revolutionary Trade Union Movement (ROH), and finally it became a dormitory for workers. "In 1988, an unsuccessful reconstruction took place, they put paneled windows in the First Republic villa. They left several centimeter holes between them and the slats, which is why the house was leaking," Adam Forman, the great-grandson of the founders, describes the condition of the house after it was taken over. The family repaired the guesthouse for many years so that it could once again become the pride of Mách's lake. A sensitive reconstruction returned the house to its First Republic nobility. The walls are decorated with paintings by Pavel Forman. Nine double and triple rooms or four apartments, including room number 16, are available to guests.