Discoveries from Czech Republic World Cinema

The Big Sister - a person of colossal size - is trapped in sand in a deserted landscape. With no way to take care of herself, this burden falls on her resentful little sister.

Princess Žalmila is called the Owl of Noodles because she sheds rivers of tears. When the wizard Zlosos learns of her tearfulness, he is delighted. His power grows with the flow of human tears. It is therefore no surprise that Princess Žalmila mysteriously disappears from her home castle one day. At the request of her mother, Queen Trudmila, the benevolent king of the neighboring kingdom, Bertrand, promises to try to find her. However, he is not eager to join the search. He has many concerns about the welfare of his own country and must also face the intrigues of the power-hungry Marshal Osmond. Nevertheless, he eventually meets the princess...

Today, Jiří Havelka and HaDivadlo's cult production, inspired by Einstein's theory of relativity and the "thought explosion" that this theory provoked, is a witty, cheeky, and inquisitive theatrical experiment that verifies, right before the audience's eyes, what Einstein's discovery means in practice for space and time. In the first part of the performance, a physicist styled after A. Einstein introduces us to the basic concepts of his theory. In the second part, the stage becomes Einstein's space-time, where the individual characters traveling by train to Zurich, together with the audience, experience firsthand the functioning of the world that began on May 29, 1919. That was when the truth of his theory of the universe was confirmed.

Happily married for fifteen years, Zuzana finds out one day that her husband has been having an affair with another woman for a long time. Zuzana does not hesitate and decides to visit her daughter-in-law Lenka and make her an unconventional proposal - she suggests that she share the care of Jirka and turn him into a man for a change. Lenka finally agrees and both women introduce this new way of life to Jirka.

What is body shaming and what are its consequences? People who have responded to the TV challenge come to the studio to talk about their experiences with bullying, ridicule and unsolicited criticism from those around them. At first glance, few would think that they might have a problem. Although they appear to be ordinary, good-looking people, in their minds they feel inadequate. They're addicted to exercise, bulimic, anorexic, depressed. They come to share previously unspoken emotions to help others fight prejudice and mean comments. They are accompanied by experienced guides - psychologist Jan Kulhánek, plus size model Natálie Debnárová, actress Bára Jánová and rapper Raego.

The story of school-age boys with behavioural problems. They come from complicated family backgrounds and the question mark of institutional care hangs over their fate.

Petr, a top cardiac surgeon, is a very reserved and introverted man. His 21-year-old daughter Lucie has a congenital heart defect, and Petr decides to operate on her himself during a scheduled surgery. After the operation, they embark on an adventurous trip to a beautiful Nordic island. Here, they have enough time to reconnect with each other. One day, however, Lucie suddenly collapses in the middle of the wilderness.

A half-hallucinating young gay man reflects on his family and partner relationships while lying in hospital.

The play S úsměvem idiota (With the Smile of an Idiot) by the duo Vodňanský-Skoumal was composed for the Činoherní klub theater and premiered on May 19, 1969. It was performed with great success until 1973, when administrative measures prevented the duo V+S from performing. The play was never recorded in its entirety. This was only achieved thirty years later, when the duo returned to the Činoherní klub with the play S úsměvem idiota. The recording is a selection of the best works by the successful songwriting duo. We remember the songs "Aristocrat," "Marshals," "At the Opera in La Scala," "Grizzly," and others, as well as their original style of humor, on the sad occasion of the death of composer, pianist, and occasional lyricist Petr Skoumal.

A long time ago, the entire world was home to a watery kingdom ruled by the Fish King. He had a magic Pearl that formed the source of his power. The people wanted to rob the Fish King of this power, but only those who believed in its magic and could overcome their fear of the dark could gaze into the glow of the magic Pearl in the watery depths. A short film about how people who believe in fairy tales have nothing to fear.

Sleep has become an ideological field of tension. In the face of digital surveillance and optimisation, our once romanticised realm of dreams is now fragmented, clustered and sold off as so many units of data. Oddly enough, it would seem as if surrender and absence provide the best forms of resistance here. In a brief paranoid scrutiny of self-surveillance, and theories of digital humanities, this video essay is orbited by elements of distraction, adaption, and car lights passing through bedrooms.

Three men, three dates, one retro American restaurant and one big secret that Bella's hiding from everyone.

A tragicomic story about Michal, an introverted cashier who falls in love with a girl from a nearby flower shop, but his shy nature prevents him from making the first move. The tragicomic nature of Michal's story, in which fate and society constantly throw obstacles in his path, is further enhanced by his eccentric father and Michal's boss. Free Fall shows that being empathetic, kind, and accommodating does not necessarily mean being successful and popular.

A human flock runs across the landscape of fields. Thirteen performers in a teardrop formation form a single organism, guided by collective intelligence or intuition. It flows across the landscape of geometric patterns over terrain waves, flows around copses, divides, regroupes, and reunites. It stops at the horizon, rests, and runs on. The contrast between lively movement and the immobile geometry of the landscape. A hunter enters this magical moment. He walks across the field, climbs into a hunting blind, and loads his shotgun. The unsuspecting flock continues its light-footed, aimless journey.

The impetus for writing the play was a real event - the investigation of the loss of the class register at a boys' school in Vienna's 4th district. The perpetrator was most likely a student named F. Kirchner. Cimrman was a police inspector in Vienna's 4th district at the time, and the school principal turned to him when all educational measures had failed. Six police officers followed the suspect for three days, but to no avail. Cimrman therefore decided to influence Kirchner in a different way: he wrote a play about the theft, which was staged by the police department's drama club as a compulsory school performance. The author expected that seeing the suffering of the teacher, principal, and inspector during their futile investigation would lead the culprit to regret his actions and confess. However, the stubborn boy, the son of a nun, was not moved.

The impetus for writing the play was a real event - the investigation of the loss of the class register at a boys' school in Vienna's 4th district. The perpetrator was most likely a student named F. Kirchner. Cimrman was a police inspector in Vienna's 4th district at the time, and the school principal turned to him when all educational measures had failed. Six police officers followed the suspect for three days, but to no avail. Cimrman therefore decided to influence Kirchner in a different way: he wrote a play about the theft, which was staged by the police department's drama club as a compulsory school performance. The author expected that seeing the suffering of the teacher, principal, and inspector during their futile investigation would lead the culprit to regret his actions and confess. However, the stubborn boy, the son of a nun, was not moved.

A realistic medieval game demands realistic medieval combat! The documentary Fechtbuch not only charts Warhorse Studio’s quest to create a unique experience, but also presents medieval martial arts as a phenomenon and an important element of European history.

From fairy tales or funny gore games - it could be characterized by a black-and-white review of folk tabernacles involving sex with a pig, frowning, and the painful fall of the princess from her prison in the high tower.

On New Year's Eve in 1944, two men meet in the middle of a snowstorm in a cottage cut off from civilization - a widower, Petr Bernat, and an SS officer, Konrad Neumann. The only thing the two men have in common is their Sudeten origins. At first, their conversation revolves around mundane topics, but as midnight approaches, they begin to address more pressing issues. A tragic past is revealed and it becomes clear that tonight will be a fateful night for Bernat and Neumann.

In her own words, this documentary profiles renowned opera singer Soňa Červená and how the tumultuous events of 20th-century Europe impacted her life.

An unknown stranger appears, inviting Róza to dance, giving her a pair of red shoes. Thanks to them, Róza starts to dance, wildly and with great passion, quickly becoming the center of attention. Soon after she realizes that she can't control the shoes, the shoes are controlling her…

Belarus between 1941 and 1944 was an apocalyptic place with nights lit by flames from hundreds of torched villages and with soil soaked in the blood of countless victims.

Young drug addict Martin is forced by his father to stop taking drugs. While he struggles with his addiction, there is a serial killer in the town, brutally massacring all drug addicts with axe. The only solution for Martin, how not to get murdered, is a total detoxification.

Jakub and Dominika enter an abandoned prison to have sex. During a freak storm, they are moved in time for about fifty years, when the prison was still in use. Taken for American spies, they are imprisoned, interrogated and brutally tortured.

When the princess rejected the Lord of Evil Water, she had no idea how cruel his revenge would be. Water disappeared from the kingdom, and its inhabitants now realize how great a treasure clear, clean water is. You will learn about the courage it took to bring life-giving water back to the kingdom in Jan Jílek's fairy tale.

A film about the lives of three people. Marek lives out in the mountains with his father who is a person with a certain disability. Apart from his father Marek never interacts with any other people. The pair survive by poaching animals. Marek’s father trades the animals they poach in the nearest village for the things they need to survive in the wilderness. Marek is in hiding is because there is a war going on and he does not want to be recruited to the army. Marek wants to avoid this fate as there is no one else to take care of his father, who wouldn't survive on his own. The solitude of the pair is broken when one day when an unexpected catch awaits Marek in one of his traps...

The story follows Estonian volunteer fighting for the German SS and his perilous journey as he attempts to reach American lines to avoid Soviet captivity, facing impossible choices between surrendering to the Soviets (and likely execution or Siberian camps) or continuing a hopeless fight westward.

The loose series of detective stories featuring Jan Kanyza as Major Bohuslav continues with another story. As the title suggests, it is once again about murder, but not of an ordinary domestic animal, but of "two-legged cats": models, photographic models, and above all unsuccessful high school students, girls who are extremely charming but also unhappy, superficial, and egotistical, who only want to gain and take in life, whether it be love, prosperity, or money. With her frivolous and cynical approach to life, she managed to make many enemies, which ultimately proved fatal for her.

Honza was born in 1974 into the cheerless era of socialism in Czechoslovakia. At that time, his parents Jana and Petr lived in one room in the apartment of Jana's divorced mother and her widowed grandmother. A few years later, the family moved from Prague to Liberec where Petr found a job and a little house for the family. When Honza was born, his father began writing a family chronicle and he has continued to do so for 37 years. "Private Universe" show not only the life of one ordinary family, but also how the Czech society has changed in last four decades. Who are we, where do we come from and where do we go?

After the success of a video game series of the same name, the author of the games decided to make a movie in a similar vibe and style. The result is a slightly disturbing, yet entertaining look at the life of Jarda Malík, who needs to quickly get hold of 150.000 Czech crowns. But the task won't be easy, as our hero needs to deal with various obstacles in the way of repaying a debt to the blood thirsty collectors.

Six lives. Zero water. One shitty tragedy

Jiří, a Czech physicist and a visionary handyman, has an idea on how to save the planet. But no one will listen to him. His daughter, Marta, a musician and mother of two, is annoyed at this. She takes her camera and goes "out into the world" with her dad. She wants to see if the world could work just as Jiri had envisioned it. Humor is brought to the film as they showcase their combined and inventive strategies on how they should present their idea and to whom.

Even though doctors Ondřej and Kateřina look after their patients to the best of their ability, they can’t prevent their death. As heads of palliative care at Prague’s General University Hospital they face the inevitability of the end on a daily basis. Yet what perhaps makes their job harder is the myriad options now open to them to prolong human life – and this at a time when death has become a social taboo. Betraying her special brand of empathy, documentarist Adéla Komrzý demonstrates that, while there’s no good or bad way to die, there’s always a means to improve patients’ quality of life.

Martina was doused with acid by her ex-boyfriend, causing third-degree burns to the upper half of her body and almost complete blindness. The documentary portrait follows her life story after this life-changing attack – coping with the loss of physical attractiveness, the fear of a world she cannot see, and her search for a new meaning in life. Martina's story bears all the hallmarks of a good biopic. It presents a strong central character going through difficult situations and finding happiness despite many pitfalls. But what sets it apart from mainstream productions is the directness with which Martina speaks to us and its potential to break through many taboos.

Terezka is in love with Antonínek, a shepherd boy. However, her father, an old blacksmith, does not approve of their love, as he would rather see his daughter married to a decent man who could light a fire with his breath and to whom he could pass on his smithy. Poor Antonínek has no choice but to seek help from a dwarf living in the rocks. The dwarf gives him a bellows, and in the end, everything turns out well.

We are off on an excursion, two excursions in fact, in the company of a landlord from Prague, who is, let us say, a little rough around the edges. The first journey of Mr Brouček is to the Moon where our beer-drinking hero (literally ‘Mr Beetle’) meets the oh-so sophisticated Moon-dwellers. In the second, we travel through time to the early 15th century to a heroic period in Czech history when the Czechs fought off armies of crusaders from the rest of Europe. Will Mr Brouček fare any better in Prague circa 1420, when Czechs are on the eve of a famous victory defending their Hussite faith? For this new production from the heart of the composer’s home country, Janáček Festival Brno has entrusted the staging to the famous Canadian director, Robert Carsen who thus opens the 2024 Festival with this, his sixth production of a Janáček opera.

Meeting unexpectedly at their older sister's grave, Anka and Zuzu spend a tense afternoon easing back into their stubborn and sisterly ways after ten years apart.

She was one year old when she first lost her father. He left her mother and never came back to them. Now she's an adult, living in Prague, afraid she'll never see him. When he left her as a child, she doesn't remember ever seeing him. In this documentary diary, we follow the spoken and unspoken correspondence between an abandoned daughter and a father defending his homeland.