Czech Havel to direct first movie

Mr Havel was Czechoslovakia's first post-communist president

Former Czech President Vaclav Havel is to direct his first movie - a film based on his latest play Leaving.

The work, his first play in 20 years, tells the story of a politician's painful adjustment to a new life after leaving politics.

Mr Havel, 72, was a renowned playwright when he entered politics in 1989.

Czech newspapers have speculated that his wife, Dagmar, for whom Mr Havel wrote the play, will play the leading female role.

The film's producer Radka Kedlecova said shooting could start next year.

The premiere of the play at Prague's Archa Theatre in May 2008 attracted much attention in the Czech Republic.

An English translation also premiered in the Orange Tree theatre in Richmond last year.

How come power has such charisma for some people that its loss means the collapse of that person's world? Vaclav Havel

Mr Havel, who had an operation on his throat in January, has said his 19th play was "built on an archetypal experience of a world that is collapsing, of collapsing values, the loss of certainty".

"How come when someone loses power, that person also loses the meaning of life?" he said.

"How come power has such charisma for some people that its loss means the collapse of that person's world?"

Mr Havel was a dissident playwright when he led the 1989 revolution that ousted the Soviet-backed communist regime without bloodshed, after four decades of authoritarian rule.

He was elected Czechoslovakia's first post-communist president in 1989 and then became president of the Czech Republic formed in 1993.

His last term in office ended in 2003.