Discoveries from Czech Republic World Cinema

Hundreds of teenagers join the Slovak Recruits paramilitary group to get ready for the final clash of civilizations and to fight whoever invades their country.

A writer gets into a rehab where he meets a lot of successful men who destroyed their lives with alcohol.

The world's most loved fairytale is back in a whole new fantastic imagining in Pinocchio. When a piece of pine-wood falls into the hands of the poor old toymaker Geppetto, he carves it into a puppet which he names Pinocchio. To Geppetto's delight, Pinocchio comes to life - and like most little boys, he's full of reckless whims and wild ideas! His crazy escapades lead him into a series of madcap adventures from joining the circus to visiting the inside of whale! Along his journey, and throughout all the fun, Pinocchio learns to be considerate and courageous and learns what it takes to become a real boy.

Forest engineer Ivan fell in love with scientist Julie. After their wedding, they bought a guesthouse in the heart of the picturesque Šumava Mountains, where they moved in with Julie's 16-year-old daughter Kačka and her dachshund Hugo. However, Ivan and Julie are primarily focused on having a child and neglect the running of the guesthouse. Julie falls into despair and begins visiting the charlatan Kallvíni, who is supposed to help her get pregnant. It is therefore no surprise that crowds of guests are not flocking to their guesthouse when no one knows about this beautiful place. In addition, the guesthouse is run by two incompetent old women whom Julie hired to help out. Fortunately, her daughter Kačka, who had ADHD as a child and has been listening to her Hugo ever since, comes up with the idea of running a "Guesthouse for dogs... and their owners" with her four-legged friend.

Czech anti-immigration and anti-Islam activists have decided to start building an empire. But do they really believe what they preach? And how is this activity perceived by those around them? The film, three years in the making, is generally about the rise and fall of the popularity of right-wing populist parties and specifically follows the failed political career of Petr Hampel and Martin Konvička. Amateur reporter Tomáš Měšt'an also comes to the fore, first as a cameraman and then as an active co-creator of conspiracy stories.

Libuse is a divorcee who owns a dog hotel and would much rather spend her time with her dogs than stepping back into the dating pool.

Mr. Laffler is strange. Everyone in the office he runs knows that. The clerk, Costain also knows this, so he is very surprised when his otherwise impersonal boss does something as human as inviting Costain to dinner. But not at home. At home, he says, he does not accept guests. He leads him to an inconspicuous, secluded restaurant U Sbirra, where a very closed company of strange people meet.

To recharge after a divorce, a woman returns to her home village, which faces a bizarre problem. The cemetery has run out of room.

The dark crime comedy is set in the present day. The story is inspired by the two biggest and still unsolved robberies that have taken place in our country in recent years. The main characters are three friends who were dramatically separated by fate years ago. Now they meet again in the backdrop of today's Prague. Why are these modern-day musketeers getting together? To make millions together! The robberies are successful, but what next? How can they enjoy their stolen money without attracting attention? Our three heroes discover that this is much more difficult than they originally thought. And they couldn't do it without the backing of international crime. The film is set in Prague and the attractive exteriors of Sri Lanka and Tunisia.

A celebration of Czech music. This is a concert featuring the biggest names on the domestic pop scene. Dozens of singers paid tribute to Karel Gott, a musical legend loved not only in our country. You will hear many of his beautiful and famous songs, including hits such as "Lady Carneval," "Jdi za štěstím," "Trezor," "Co sudičky přály nám," and "Srdce nehasnou." All performed by Lucie Bílá, Marek Ztracený, Monika Absolonová, Ondřej Brzobohatý, Michal David, Václav Noid Bárta, Charlotta Ella Gottová, Richard Krajčo, Jiří Suchý, Hana Zagorová, and many others. Actress Jiřina Bohdalová will be a special guest, and Libor Bouček will host the evening.

The charismatic and self-confident man, Karel Král, is the editor-in-chief of men's magazine. Although a chauvinistic type, he is very popular with women. However, he struggles in his personal life. He frequently argues with his ex-wife over their 17 year-old daughter Julie, who despises his new way of life. Then the consequences of his behavior catch up with him. He loses his job, and the editor-in-chief position is given to a young and beautiful woman. But his bad luck does not end there. After another fight with his ex-wife and daughter, and a woman driver crashing into his car, Karel and his best friend Cestmír have an evening of binge drinking. During the wild night, he expresses a wish to be a woman. When he wakes up the next morning he discovers that his wish has been granted.

The story of how Baruška rescued the prince from his spell. It wasn't easy, and who knows if she would have succeeded if it weren't for the three roses given to her by the Wind, the Moon, and the Sun on her journey to find the blue bird. But she had to add courage, perseverance, and love to those gifts. And because she succeeded, she has long since been sitting beside her beloved prince on the throne, ruling the Blue Kingdom together with him.

At a small bus station in an anonymous town, five strangers meet. Each has their own reasons for no longer enjoying life and wanting to end it, but none of them has the courage to do it alone.

We are witnessing a generational transformation of audiovisual entertainment. Independent work by internet creators, who have already managed to take first places in the celebrity rankings, is competing with television production. Parents panic when their children spend the whole day frozen in front of laptop and smartphone screens. The most watched is a communication bridge between two generations. What does it actually mean to be a YouTuber? And why have YouTubers become a phenomenon that already has an undeniable influence on society today? The feature-length documentary reveals the secrets of their success and looks into the everyday lives that they keep away from the cameras. It hears the opinions of everyone who is affected by watching and creating YouTube videos. Parents of children, marketing specialists, sociologists, psychologists and the viewers themselves.

A group of beautiful young women on route to a modeling competition find themselves stranded when their van breaks down. Their problems are just beginning as they find themselves located in the dungeons of a medieval castle that is the base for auctioning women.

A fairy tale based on Charles Deulin's story about how dancing was forbidden in the castle, yet every morning there was a pile of worn-out shoes in the princesses' chambers. The king had great trouble with his daughters, Princess Maria, Klara, and Lina. They always got up at noon, complaining of headaches and fatigue, looking pale and emaciated. But at night... The secret of the three princesses is revealed by the basket maker Peter. If Peter had not fallen in love with the youngest of the princesses, no one would ever have found out where she and her two sisters spent their nights, and why it was so difficult to wake them up in the morning. Peter is helped by a fairy who, as it turns out, is the princesses' mother.

At a high school, gang leader Yvoš coerces Tony into stealing what turns out to be his ex-girlfriend Valérie’s phone, planning to publicly humiliate her by projecting private photos at the school academy. Tony assembles a team of outcasts with Valérie to thwart Yvoš’s scheme.

Story of a man who, at the end of the 1940s, attempted to cross the Czechoslovak border illegally like many others to escape the communist regime and became a victim of the historically documented game of the security forces of the totalitarian regime, the so-called Kameny action. The project of the Miroslav Ondříček Film Academy in Písek is the debut of screenwriter and director Martin Kopp.

Set in the late 80s in a quiet, rural village headed by a suspicious, conspiring group of nasty leaders. Ewald has arrived there to measure water levels. Surrounding the fortress near the village are soldiers.

On the eve of Christmas, successful expatriate Karel returns to his quiet mountain village, and suddenly every marriageable girl in town vies for his hand, even storming his cottage. Determined to avoid marriage and instead sell the family farm and leave with his younger brother, he sets his would-be brides impossible tasks, and the very first challenge whittles the contenders down to just one: his stepsister Květa.

The district town is reeling from the murder of a well-known local businesswoman. She was found dead one morning, dressed in a revealing costume in a dentist's office. The investigation is entrusted to a pair of detectives, Commissioner Petr Brouček and Commissioner Jaroslav Falta. It is up to them to solve this complex case, which involves a number of well-known local figures and revolves around a local luxury gentlemen's club.

The feature film Diary of an Alcoholic tells the dramatic story of a young woman struggling with alcohol addiction. The main heroine (although she often does not act like a heroine) is a young mother who decided not to give up, to start treatment and to fight her demon and her family. How hard is it to admit a drinking problem? Why is not even a small child an obstacle to addiction? Where to get the strength to heal and what comes next? These and many other questions are answered by an authentic and honest cinematic confession of an abstinent alcoholic.

The short stories about marriage that Vít Olmer wrote for Playboy magazine when Arnošt Lustig was its editor-in-chief are witty, often with absurd punchlines, and clearly show that the author is a keen observer of life around us. He selected five of them for his new Czech comedy, whose common denominator is actor Jiří Krampol, the main character in each of them.

Alena falls mysteriously ill after Mira breaks off their secret relationship.

Karel and Saša's marriage has reached a dead end, so Saša moves out of the house for a while. She finds temporary refuge with Dušan, an old acquaintance who once played at their wedding. Both of them, sometimes together, sometimes separately, explore the elusive topic of relationships and shed light on it from their opposite perspectives.

1914. Colonel von Haukwitz dies under mysterious circumstances during an occult séance. His fiancée, actress Klára Knabelová, discovers during the investigation that the head, hands, and heart were removed from the body after death. In her search for answers to this mystery, she encounters the colonel's closest associate, Lieutenant Heinrich Roth, and fate brings them together. Military investigator Karel Vrana tries to persuade Klára to cooperate against Roth and occult circles within the army. Klára refuses, but expresses her support for Vrana's goal of finding the stolen parts of the colonel's body. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Roth is called to the battlefield of World War I, and Vrana sets out across Europe to search for von Haukwitz's remains, which are being used by occult groups. Klára moves to her family farm in Moravia, where she receives another part of the body—the hand of the wounded Lieutenant Roth.

A battle over a family inheritance breaks out among the main characters of the comedy. Their ideas about what to do with it vary. A quirky widow full of life sees it one way, while her repeatedly divorced daughter, unemployed son, and his ex-wife see it another.

A comedy from the hotel where it all began and ended.

The forgotten story of Martin and Osa Johnson, rebel filmmakers and Kansas natives who made some of the first films in Africa in times when filming itself was more dangerous than lions or malaria.

Bestiary is the story of a young woman, Karolína, whose life is profoundly changed by her relationship with Alex, a mysterious and elusive man. It is a relationship full of uncertainty and strange ambiguities, a relationship that is exhausting. Karolína decides to break free from her emotional dependence and learn from other men how to stop being submissive. She wants to be the one who sets the pace, she wants a change of roles.

Recording of the performance Dabing Street from the Dejvice Theater.

All the parents suddenly fall asleep, and children have to survive in the world. A thrilling adventure showing what can happen when chaos reigns and children are forced to face the pitfalls of the world on their own.

The film tells the story of Eva, a pianist who followed her husband, musician and composer Peter, to a small village on the Slovak-Hungarian border. While Peter enjoys the peace and quiet of composing in the local environment, Eva searches in vain for a career as a performer, feeling disconnected not only from her family but also from her familiar Prague surroundings and friends. Unfaithful Plays is an intimate love drama about love, infidelity, human failures and finding oneself.

A dark and absurd road-movie comedy in which the grandmother fulfills a dream, the mother stops treating her daughters like kids, the daughters stop treating their husbands like idiots, and the father's ashes get spread all over the country.

Most people have left Earth, for unknown reasons and to unknown destinations. The story follows three men who live together and support each other. They use an old military warehouse full of supplies and food to survive. They try to maintain their human values. There are other groups of people on Earth who are barely surviving and resorting to cannibalism. After a conflict with one such group, the trio must leave their warehouse. They end up in a former prison, which seems like paradise to them. The prison is inhabited by a young girl. After further difficulties, everything is coming to a final move.

This film essay about mushrooms and their connections to other living things tries to use the structure of mushrooms to explain nature, science, and civilization, all the while searching for various analogies, such as the similarities between mycorrhiza and other structures.

Držgrešle and Drždukát are truly miserly characters. With their cunning, deceit, and eloquence, they could probably swindle a calf from a barren cow. They rob simple villagers and fairy-tale creatures of whatever they can. Just think, they even take away the terrible voice of a terrible robber. In the end, however, they meet their match: the lazy Vojta and his sweetheart Anička come up with a way to rob the greedy brothers of the sack in which they keep all the possessions of those who cross their path.

Two mismatched lovers struggle to find happiness in an unaccepting society in this drama. Marie is a woman of Romany heritage who works at a hospital in the Czech Republic. Marie wants to quietly assimilate into the culture around her, a notion that offenders her brother Tibor, who is proud of is Romany blood and must often defend himself against insults from his co-workers at a sawmill. One of Tibor's greatest antagonists is Wagan, who is friends with Frantisek, another sawmill employee with a passionate interest in Native American culture. Frantisek meets Marie by chance, and an immediate attraction blooms between them; however, Marie is already engaged to Martin, and Tibor will not hear of her leaving her fiancée for a Czech, especially one who is friends with Wagan. Frantisek discovers Wagan and his other friends are no more accepting of Marie, but their ridicule doesn't change the way he feels about her. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The story of royal twins and their different personalities. Is the person who thinks primarily of themselves happy, or can we only find true happiness in helping others? And can we think of those who are not right in front of our eyes? Petr Janiš explores these and other questions of selfishness and altruism in his original fairy tale based on the story of the royal twins Amélie and Jan. Prince Jan is endowed with magical powers; any wish he makes comes true. His sister, Princess Amélie, makes sure that his wishes are wise. It seems that nothing can threaten the happiness of the royal family and the whole country, but then the king's selfish and cruel brother enters their previously clear and problem-free life...

Hundreds of teenagers join the Slovak Recruits paramilitary group to get ready for the final clash of civilizations and to fight whoever invades their country.

Masha and Ilya were born around the time Vladimir Putin came to power. The girl and the boy, just like their friends, wanted to live in a free, democratic and open country. Fighting for freedom and their future, our heroes organise discussion clubs and protest actions, participate in pickets and give lectures, support their comrades who are behind bars, try to change the minds of their relatives, friends and ordinary passers-by in various Russian cities. "Moscow, come out!" shouts Masha at a rally. But Moscow does not come out, it is busy and in a hurry. The centuries-old machine of unfreedom sweeps the boys away. War breaks out. And we all find ourselves in another reality.

Major Maisner, head of Interpol for Central Europe and neighboring Asian countries, is fulfilling his mission in Bangkok, Thailand. When he returns from his mission, he has no idea that his doppelganger, sent here by the Thai mafia, is acting on his behalf in the Czech Republic.

Forest engineer Ivan fell in love with scientist Julie. After their wedding, they bought a guesthouse in the heart of the picturesque Šumava Mountains, where they moved in with Julie's 16-year-old daughter Kačka and her dachshund Hugo. However, Ivan and Julie are primarily focused on having a child and neglect the running of the guesthouse. Julie falls into despair and begins visiting the charlatan Kallvíni, who is supposed to help her get pregnant. It is therefore no surprise that crowds of guests are not flocking to their guesthouse when no one knows about this beautiful place. In addition, the guesthouse is run by two incompetent old women whom Julie hired to help out. Fortunately, her daughter Kačka, who had ADHD as a child and has been listening to her Hugo ever since, comes up with the idea of running a "Guesthouse for dogs... and their owners" with her four-legged friend.

Czech anti-immigration and anti-Islam activists have decided to start building an empire. But do they really believe what they preach? And how is this activity perceived by those around them? The film, three years in the making, is generally about the rise and fall of the popularity of right-wing populist parties and specifically follows the failed political career of Petr Hampel and Martin Konvička. Amateur reporter Tomáš Měšt'an also comes to the fore, first as a cameraman and then as an active co-creator of conspiracy stories.

A TV fairy tale based on a legend from the Haná region. Jan, Margrave of Moravia, falls in love with a simple girl named Marína and marries her. But things start to get complicated at their lavish wedding. The evil fairy Plevelice, in the guise of a beautiful countess, does everything she can to subjugate Jan to her power. His love for Marina fades, and everything is further complicated by war. Marina, who flees the castle to escape her husband's growing anger, gives birth to a boy named Ječmínek. The more she hides with him, the louder the tales of the little heir's goodness and supernatural abilities become. When Jan meets his son, all evil spells disappear, and goodwill and love return to the land of golden fields.

Libuse is a divorcee who owns a dog hotel and would much rather spend her time with her dogs than stepping back into the dating pool.

Mr. Laffler is strange. Everyone in the office he runs knows that. The clerk, Costain also knows this, so he is very surprised when his otherwise impersonal boss does something as human as inviting Costain to dinner. But not at home. At home, he says, he does not accept guests. He leads him to an inconspicuous, secluded restaurant U Sbirra, where a very closed company of strange people meet.

To recharge after a divorce, a woman returns to her home village, which faces a bizarre problem. The cemetery has run out of room.

The dark crime comedy is set in the present day. The story is inspired by the two biggest and still unsolved robberies that have taken place in our country in recent years. The main characters are three friends who were dramatically separated by fate years ago. Now they meet again in the backdrop of today's Prague. Why are these modern-day musketeers getting together? To make millions together! The robberies are successful, but what next? How can they enjoy their stolen money without attracting attention? Our three heroes discover that this is much more difficult than they originally thought. And they couldn't do it without the backing of international crime. The film is set in Prague and the attractive exteriors of Sri Lanka and Tunisia.