Pavel Štingl (born in 1960 in Prague) studied at the documentary film department at FAMU in Prague. His graduation film Naučit se bát/ Learning to Fear from the environment of young doctors received a whole range of awards and determined one of the main directions of his filmmaking. In 1990, he started a long series of political documentaries from the countries of the former Soviet block awarded at numerous festivals: Japan Prix for Země bez hrobů (The Land without Graves), Prix Italia for Pozdrav ze země, kde včera znamenalo zítra ( Greetings from the Country Where Yesterday Meant Tomorrow) and others. He filmed in Romania, Albania, various parts of the former Soviet Union, Kosovo, Nagorno-Karabakh, China, South Africa, Israel and many other places of political conflict. In 1995, Štingl launched his own production company K2 through which he produced several documentary series and a number of extensive coproduction documentaries. Among the most extensive are historical accounts of the twentieth century: Deník pana Pfitznera (The Diary of Mr. Pfitzner); Čtyři páry bot (Four Pairs of Shoes); Příběh trosečníků Patrie (The Survivors of the Shipwrecked Patria), film of the year at FIAT/IFTA; Příběh o zlém snu (A Story About a Bad Dream), MTF Japan Award. His films were screened at numerous international as well as domestic festivals, receiving a number of awards. K2’s largest projects include the feature-length film Mír jejich duši ( Peace to their Souls) and the extensive multimedia exposition of the new museum at the memorial of the town of Lidice, burned to the ground by the Nazis, A nevinní byli vini (And the Innocent Were Guilty), to become the most modern exposition on war history in the Czech Republic.