I tried to make small revolutions during the normalisation, but I always lost
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Pavel Šoltys was born in Prague on February 7, 1951. Spending his childhood in the streets of Malá Strana may seem like a dream come true. However, the historic Prague district just a stone’s throw from Prague Castle did not look nearly as picturesque in the 1950s as it does today. Pavel Šoltys’ grandfather ran the U Bonaparta restaurant and it was there that his parents met. Mom helped in the service and dad Jindřich Šoltys, once a famous Czechoslovak footballer, a Slavia player, was a regular. The young family lived in an old house with no toilet facilities and no lift, but close to all kinds of embassies, so there was no shortage of adventure. Pavel Šoltys apparently inherited his father’s worldliness, and even as a child he longed to be on film. In 1965 he played alongside František Filipovský and when he didn’t get into FAMU, he started working at Barrandov as a set designer. He and his artist friends had a difficult time during the period of normalisation and from the late 1970s he and his wife and friends began to think about emigrating. They finally succeeded in 1984. They went on a trip to Yugoslavia, and although the escape did not go as smoothly as they had planned, both families eventually managed to cross the Austrian border. They applied for asylum in Vienna and five months later Pavel Šoltys, his wife and three sons flew to San Francisco. He soon learned English and began working in a painting shop. By 2024, he was living with his second wife, Barbara, in Walnut Creek, California.
