Uneducable

Concept: Dagmar Filípková & Alma Lily Rayner
Written and narrated by: Dagmar Filípková
Recorded by: Mr. Wombat
Music and Sound: Jonáš Richter
Trailer: Ivan Svoboda

During the last decade, Dagmar Filípková has written a collection of autobiographical (unpublished) books, attributed by her as diaries. In the diaries, she vividly describes memories from her childhood in the communist era. Her work offers a rare and crucial piece of unspoken history from the perspective of a woman labeled with a “mental disability”.

Filípková’s writing is remarkably honest. Through focusing on everyday details, she unfolds the story of her family. Each day starts with her father struggling to wake her up. Her mother is apparently attached to the TV screen. The bus seems to be unavoidably late. The school is under an endless reconstruction while a state committee occasionally meets to discuss whether or not Filípková is so-called educable. It is a surreal reality yet Filípková manages to fulfil it with humor and empathy.

Relationships and education are the most prominent themes of the diaries. Since Filípková has her own unique way to learn new things, she often finds herself outcast, punished or simply dismissed. As she pours one anecdote after the other, we are bound to question our formal as well as informal education and care systems. In this sense, Filípková’s writing is truly brilliant.

The podcast Uneducable: Reading with Dáša Filípková was created in collaboration with Alma Lily Rayner. It contains four episodes in Czech and was released in 2020 on the Institute of Anxiety website.

As part of the project, Barvolam has also developed Dagmar Filípková’s online portfolio.