Around the Soul
In October 2024, a young cyclist died at a busy intersection near Eden in Vršovice. She rode into the bike box; the light turned green, and a truck started moving behind her. In an instant, she was run over by the truck. Ondřej Šebestík’s documentary reconstructs a portrait of Ani through the memories of her loved ones and excerpts from her own writings.
Čtěte také
The accident raises broader questions: How does the city treat cyclists, and why is safe cycling still more of a wish than a reality?
"Aňa was a genuine, caring person. Just as with everything else, she didn’t think of cycling in individualistic terms, but within the framework of the community she believed in,” said Aňa Dobiášová’s boyfriend Marek in his speech before the World Bike Ride, which in 2025 was dedicated to Aňa and other victims of Prague’s traffic.
Aňa’s story is also remarkably intertwined. At the Theater Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, she wrote a thesis that vividly documented manual labor in a bicycle repair shop. She titled one of her semester-long performances, created at DAMU, Around the Soul.
Around the Soul...
She sat down in the middle of a large circle made of glued-together bicycle inner tubes and took all the necessary parts out of her backpack, from which she gradually assembled a bicycle. Finally, she rode it away from the art school building.
Dramaturgie: Jakub Horáček
Zvukový mistr: Jonáš Rosůlek
Zvukový design: Pavel Jan
Stopáž: 27:39
Datum vysílání: 11. 1. 2026
Stanice: ČRo Plus
V díle zazněly citace z diplomové práce Anny Dobiášové, kterou v roce 2026 vydalo knižně nakladatelství Balbineum pod názvem Meditace v opravářské praxi. Úryvky načetli Ivan Trojan a Anna Reisigová
She worked as the only female mechanic in a male-dominated bike shop and rode her bike around town. She believed that it was healthy to stay active and not to compromise the safety, health, or freedom of others through her choice of transportation. Her fascination with the bicycle as a means of transportation led to her untimely death.
In this documentary, the filmmaker ponders whether the same tragedy could have occurred in Paris, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Vienna, or other developed cities where officials are not afraid to implement a clear urban planning solution—dedicated bike lanes.
Following Ani’s death, the "Call 0" initiative was formed, building on the Scandinavian "Vision Zero" model. The initiative’s goal is zero fatalities in urban traffic.
Why are young people dying in Prague while cycling to work? Is the traffic flow at an intersection more important than a human life? What is the state of Prague’s cycling infrastructure after roughly 20 years of systematic development? Why don’t we have separate cycling infrastructure, and why are so many people afraid to use what’s already there? These are among the questions posed by the documentary Around the Soul (Kolem duše).
Download the documentary’s script directly to your cell phone:
We will be presenting the project at Prix Bohemia Radio
When: Monday, October 19, 2026 | 10:30 a.m. – 6:30 p.m.
Where: UP Arts Center, Theater Hall – 3rd floor
Entrance: Free admission with accreditation
