The Unbearable Lightness of Being (film)

The Unbearable Lightness of Being is a 1988 American film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Milan Kundera, published in 1984. Director Philip Kaufman and screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière portray the effect on Czechoslovak artistic and intellectual life during the 1968 Prague Spring of socialist liberalization preceding invasion by Soviet led Warsaw Pact and subsequent coup that ushered in hard-line communism. It portrays the moral, political, and psycho-sexual consequences for three bohemian friends: a surgeon, and two female artists with whom he has a sexual relationship.

Plot

Charismatic Czech brain surgeon Tomas (Daniel Day-Lewis), a successful lothario in Communist Czechoslovakia is pursuing a love/hate affair with Sabina (Lena Olin), an equally care-free artist in Prague. One day, Dr Tomas makes a long distance call to a spa town for a specialized surgery. There, he meets dissatisfied waitress Tereza (Juliette Binoche), who desires intellectual stimulation. She tracks him down in Prague and cohabits with him, complicating Tomas's extra-domestic sexual affairs.