Ester Geislerová: Parents are always more complex than how we know them from our childhoods
Artist and actress Ester Geislerová has spent much of 2026 introducing people to the story of her late father Petr Geisler. This began with an exhibition dedicated to the journalist and calligrapher at Prague’s DOX art space and more recently has centred on her documentary A Pint of Ink, which premiered at Karlovy Vary. The film is produced by Ester’s sister Anna Geislerová, one of Czechia’s most famous actresses. Ahead of the recent cinema release of the documentary, I spoke to Ester Geislerová, who is also involved in a project named Therapy Through Sharing.
You had an exhibition about your father at the DOX Centre for Contemporary Art and more recently you’ve brought out a documentary about your dad. Which idea came first? And what was the motivation for those two projects?
“And also there was a book [laughs], in the middle.
“The exhibition was focused on his calligraphy, his photos and his art, but I felt like that wasn’t enough.”
“I think that first came the need to understand my father – and to spend more time with him, somehow.
“A few years after he passed away [in 2009, aged 59] I was meeting his friends and colleagues. They shared beautiful stories about him, and I started collecting them.
“The exhibition was originally supposed to take place in different galleries, around three times in fact, but each time it somehow didn’t come to fruition.
“But in the end I’m very grateful for that, because then we had the chance to have it at DOX.
“The exhibition was focused on his calligraphy, his photos and his art, but I felt like that wasn’t enough – that I would like to share more about who he was, as well as something about our life as children, and to share this feeling.
“Whenever I was speaking with his friends, I saw who he was in their faces. That was interesting for me, more than just his work.”
In doing the documentary, what do you feel like you learned about your father, Petr Geisler?
“I learned a lot about my father during the process, and about myself as well.
“But I learned that people, parents especially, are always more complex than just how we know them from our childhoods.
“I already knew that he was an exceptional Japanologist, journalist and calligrapher.
“When I went through the secret police files I was nervous about what I would find out.”
“But through the process I also discovered just how deeply he had influenced some people. That he was a good friend to many people. And that these people who are complex can be vulnerable and inspiring at the same time.”
The film shows your dad as a charismatic guy – intelligent, handsome, successful – but we also see some negative aspects of his personality. Was there anything about him that you were nervous about showing, or making public, in the documentary?
“I knew that there was some sensitive stuff. It wasn’t a secret in our family. I knew who he was.
“But when I went through the secret police files I was a little bit nervous about what I would find out.
“But after a while it was quite boring, because, according to the files, he was mostly helping Japanese journalists to translate documents connected to their press accreditation.
“And I never wanted to make a tribute, because alcohol went hand in hand with our father [laughs]. It was something very close to him. And it wouldn’t make sense to take it out of his story.”
Just to explain about the secret police reference, he was forced to collaborate with them, was that it?
“Forced? It was necessary to cooperate with them when you were working with foreign newspapers. So it was like a condition.
“This was also an interesting part for me, because I found out that a lot of people have in their family somebody who was somehow cooperating.
“But they didn’t do any good or bad things – they were in this shadow layer of communism.”
In general, were you at all concerned or worried about your family’s intimate life?
“Yeah, a little bit. But I’m quite used to it from my childhood – being the gatekeeper [laughs].
“But I have to say that I have an amazing family that, from early on, made it clear that they respected my perspective. And that was wonderful.
“I’m very thankful to them, because they had to trust me a lot.”
What about your mother? Did she mind that you show quite a bit about her personal life, and what happened to her marriage?
“Our mother is incredibly brave, as always, and she is in the film.
“I didn’t feel like there were no rules, because I was mostly with my mum.”
“That is simply who she is and how she speaks. Normally she might use slightly more dirty language, but just a little bit. And it’s sweet [laughs].
“I think she understood that the film was about trying to understand the past, and she was open. And because of that we have these very strong parts of the film.
“But I knew she was able to do it because I was working with her 20 years ago on a school project and we were talking about love and relationships – and she was also open back then.”
Your dad gave you kids a lot of freedom. But people often say that what kids really deeply want is order, routine, rules. Looking back, do you ever think that you and your siblings would have liked to have had a dad who imposed more order on their lives?
“I think both of our parents gave us enormous freedom, and as children we loved that.
“But also I have to say that I have different memories than [older sisters] Anna and Lenka, because of our age gaps: eight and nine years.
“So I didn’t feel like there were no rules, because I was mostly with my mum and I had to do my stuff and go to school; and after school I had many after-school activities and I loved to do them.
“But I think that this is just a feeling I felt from our parents: We trust you in what you want to do, to find what you want.
“And I think this is a nice thing to give any child.
“It also takes a lot of courage, and a lot of fear, somehow.
“I’ve also found this out the hard way with my kids. But I believe in them. I believe that they will find what they love and they will do it.”
Has having those kinds of parents influenced how you parent? Do you parent like them in a way, or completely differently?
“I was a young parent. I was 21 when my twins, a boy and a girl, were born. And I naturally went back to the past, and when they were small I think I did things that my mum would do.
“Alcohol left a mark on our family, so I have a great deal of respect for it.”
“But maybe as you know, when children grow up you call up your own memories – like, how old were my parents when, I don’t know, I was five?
“This was also a process with my father – that I was more thinking about him when I was older.
“I think we can all take the best from our parents and do it better [laughs].
“But, and this is what I say to my kids, every parent makes mistakes. And it’s just important what we do with these mistakes, afterwards.”
Also everybody says that’s part of growing up – when you realise, Hey, my parents were just people too.
“Yes. That could just be a short sentence to describe our film [laughs].”
Your dad basically drank himself to death, and you were around that. Did that affect your own attitude to drinking?
“I think when I was a kid it was more the fact that he left us than the alcohol. Because I was small, and I didn’t think about his drinking.
“But later I did, especially in his last years, before he died.
“Alcohol left a mark on our family, so I have a great deal of respect for alcohol.
“But I also like alcohol that much that I don’t want to put it out of my life.
“I don’t like the feeling that something controls me. And I know how to take care of myself.
“We also do three months off alcohol every year.
“I have this differently from my father. When I don’t feel good in every different part of taking care of myself I do something so that I feel better, or get healthy.”
You’re interested in therapy. Does that partly come from your own complicated family background, do you think?
“You mean the project Therapy Through Sharing? Well, just slightly, because I find it very natural to speak about relationships.
“Sometimes we were filmmakers that had this idea to make this beautiful film. But sometimes we were just sisters, or daughters.”
“In high school a lot of friends came to me and they were sharing their stories with me. I think it’s because when our father left me and my sisters, and my mum, we learned how to speak about feelings.
“For me it’s something normal, like talking about which kind of coffee you like.
“And relationships inspire me in my art. I think it’s something that we all want. It’s very sensitive. There are a lot of emotions involved. But I like to work with it conceptually.
“The project Therapy Through Sharing naturally followed from what I studied – new media at the Academy of Fine Art and Intermedial Confrontation at UMPRUM [Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design].
“Because I just love small messages – just screenshots of intimate relationship messages.
“For me it’s funny, it’s bizarre, it’s beautiful… stuff. It’s like relationship haiku [laughs] that I like to work with conceptually.
“So that’s why I approached Honza Vojtko, a couples therapist, to work with me.
“But I’m not a couples therapist and I can’t speak about relationships. I just work with it as an artist.”
Your sister Anna was the producer of the film and she’s also in it, as are the rest of your family. Getting to work on such a family project is something that almost no families ever have. How did you find doing that?
“I think it’s beautiful – and challenging. Because sometimes we were filmmakers that had this idea to make this beautiful film. But sometimes we were just sisters, or daughters.
“As producers do, Anna was on this project at the beginning and at the end; she wasn’t there with me day by day.
“I also worked with pauses, because I was working on different projects.
“But for me it was touching because I saw that she respects me, which for every youngest person in the family is a relief [laughs].
“Also we had fun. It’s been beautiful.
“And I like the PR stuff, when we travel from festival to festival and do debates with viewers and they ask questions – and we complete each other.
“It’s beautiful. Yeah.”
What about the visual side of the film? How did you put it together? You have quite a bit of archival material.
“I wanted the movie to be playful, a little bit like dreaming.
“I wanted to use all the mediums that we had: father’s photographs, slides, VHS tapes, old black and white 16-milimetre movies, 8-milimetre movies. Everything that I could find.
“Also audio recordings from when I was with my father, because I liked the atmosphere and the emotion of it.
“The first idea was that I would make this film just from this material. But when I started talking to people, I liked what they had in their eyes and their faces when they were talking about father.
“So in the end we also used talking heads, but in the end I’m very happy about that – because there are emotions.”
The exhibition at DOX got a lot of positive attention and the film has also been well-received. How satisfying is that for you, after all the work that went into these projects and, as you say, a book as well?
“It’s a relief. Because I worked on the film for at least five years in a more focused way but the process started many, many years ago – maybe 15 years ago.
“So everything that is happening is like a dream.
“I hope maybe some people will talk more to their parents, or go through their stuff.”
“But for me it’s very interesting that people simply somehow recognise something from their lives, of their parents and of themselves.
“They connect with something in the film and this is very beautiful, but I don’t know exactly what it is.
“I know that in the beginning I wanted to share a certain kind of feeling about our father, his essence.
“And somehow that works. But also there is a lot of other stuff, because not everybody is lucky enough to have a complete family.
“Everybody knows somebody who has a problem with addiction.
“And also there is a lot of stuff about love and about grief, and we all know those.
“For me it’s also very nice to talk to people who don’t know anything about us. To talk to them and to share his stories from childhood.
“They have questions about everything that isn’t in the film, and it’s nice [laughs].
“And I hope maybe some people will talk more to their parents, or go through their stuff.”
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