DOSTÁL, ZENO

DOSTÁL, ZENO (1934–1996), Czech writer and director. Dostál was born in Konice at Prostějov (Moravia). From 1944he was hidden from Nazis by his relatives. In the 1950s his studies at the Faculty of Pedagogy were interrupted because of his father's imprisonment. In the 1960s, after working at manual labor, he was employed in a film studio in Prague, where he became an assistant director. He started publishing his "zodiac" stories in the 1980s: Býk, Beran a Váhy (1981; "A Taurus, an Aries and a Libra"), describing life in the author's native part of Moravia in the 1930s and during the Nazi occupation, followed by Lev a Štír (1983; "A Leo and a Scorpio"), Vodnář (1987; "An Aquarius"), Vrata (1987; "The Gate"), Rekrut (1989; "The Recruit"), Labuť (1991; "The Swan"), Blíženci (1993; "A Gemini"), and Ryby (1994; "A Pisces"), reflecting postwar Czech society and the situation of the Jews. He directed the movies Král Kolonád (1990; "The King of Collonade"), after his story Leo; Golet v údolí (1995; "Galut in the Valley") based on the work of ivan olbracht ; and Váhy (1992; "A Libra") for Czech TV (based on his own screenplay). From 1992 to his death in 1996, he was the chairman of the Prague Jewish community. (Milos Pojar (2nd ed.)