“I’m Here Because I Didn’t Want to Be There”: Miloš Forman’s and Ivan Passer’s Reflections on Being in Exile in the US

The essay examines the lives of two Czech film directors, Miloš Forman and Ivan Passer, in order to investigate the roles of exile and emigration in shaping their self-representation as cinematic authors and their filmic production. To this end, this article analyzes the experience of the two filmmakers in the U.S. through the various forms of their testimonies—biographies, autobiographies, interviews—eventually engaging in a concise comparison of their oeuvre. The sources analyzed hint at a personal and professional self-representation in terms of ‘émigrés.’