"It was only there that I discovered the depth and seriousness of philosophy. I focused on it with a lot of passion, meaning that those were challenging years since maths and physics in themselves are quite challenging, and I had to study in the afternoon and evening and hear lectures that had to be mastered for exams, but somehow I managed. I also wanted to read medieval philosophy in the vernacular, so I started learning Latin to be able to read the texts. It was a lot to do at once, but it was just a part of life that you don't forget. It's also something you don't forget because of the ever-present sense of danger. We would attend lectures in different places and there were these rules that were simple but they had to be followed strictly. For example, I remember we heard lectures on spiritual life in an apartment building within a housing estate for some time; a young family would lend their apartment for that. Maybe twenty people would show up, so everybody did it like this: When you came within sight of the house, you would stop a long way away, observe, and only enter when you saw that nobody else was entering, so that people in the neighborhood - you never knew who they were - would not see several people going in at the same time. This was to avoid an obvious sign that something was going on in there. Simple rules like this, which needed to be followed."
"My best friend told me we should go to a camp together. It was organised by... His dad was a doctor, so some kind of camp organised by a professional network, not anything linked to any youth organization. There were kids from different families who I didn't know. What matters is that the camp was held somewhere in the south of Moravia, near the border, I guess somewhere in the Znojmo area. I can see it like it was today: I woke up on the twenty-first of August in the camp. We slept in these small cabins, I look out the window and suddenly I see all the guides... Nothing is happening, no wake-up call, no roll call, and it seems to me that it's already very light and something should be happening. The guides are running around with transistor radios to their ears and tears in their eyes. They're talking to each other, and a 13-year-old me is thinking, what's all this...?"
Oldřich Selucký was born in Kyjov on 31 December 1955 to Jaroslav Selucký and Ludmila Selucká. Before 1948, his maternal grandfather was a successful farmer who employed several people. A conflict during the confiscation of his property made him flee, and he eventually ended up in prison. This family history marred Oldřich Selucký’s chances to study in any artistic field, which was his great desire. Art and faith had become a safe haven for him in his childhood when he sought inner fulfillment. He was only able to obtain formal education in normalisation-era Czechoslovakia at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, as mathematics studies were not in-demand. This is also when he began studying medieval philosophy and theology in depth further to having encountered the underground Catholic Church. Eventually, his desire to live a true and fulfilled life led him to emigrate. The Velvet Revolution then meant a return to his homeland and an opportunity to create freely in a free country. He soon began to focus fully on art and literature as an author and illustrator of many Christian-themed books and scripts especially for children and young people. The American translation of his book “Paul, the Adventurer of Faith” won the first prize for the best Catholic children’s book in 2009. Oldřich Selucký also received two awards from the Czech Bishops’ Conference for literary and film work with spiritual content. At the time of filming (2024) he lived and worked in Prague.
