Vladimír Mikes: The Genius Forger

One of the biggest scandals in the history of art was the discovery of forgeries of paintings by the Dutch master Jan Vermeer, which happened by chance shortly after the end of the Second World War. This event was the inspiration for Vladimír Mikes' radio play The Brilliant Counterfeiter. In the imaginary dialogues between the painter and his forger, the author tries to address the question of truth and lies in art.He longed to become a renowned painter, but he succeeded only partially, and in the end he went down in the history of art as a genius of forgers. Henricus Antonius van Meegeren was never short of clients as a painter, he was a skilful portraitist and landscape painter and was considered a fashionable painter in bourgeois circles. However, professional critics had only words of contempt for his style. Van Meegeren finally decided to demonstrate his talent in a curious way. He forged the works of one of the greatest Flemish masters, Jan Vermeer. Persons and cast: Han Antonius van Meegeren, a forger of Vermeer's paintings (Josef Vinklář), Jan Vermeer van Delft (Jiří Ornest), Catharina, Vermeer's wife (Daniela Kolářová), Jola, Meegeren's wife (Jaroslava Adamová), Jacob, Meegeren's son from his first marriage (Ivan Trojan), Bredel (Pavel Roman), Van Stendel (Jaromír Meduna), Gatten (Jaroslav Someš), Lustig (Bronislav Poloczek), Wijngaarden (Bohumil Švarc), Judge (Miroslav Moravec), Prosecutor (František Němec), The Advocate (Karel Pospíšil) and The Summoner (Miloš Rozhoň) Directed by: Lída Engelová