Discoveries from Czech Republic World Cinema

A comedy about erotically addicted men is therapy for everyone, especially those who think they don't need therapy. At a session for erotically addicted men, Eda, the owner of a bicycle repair shop, meets Cyril, a history and physical education teacher; GIGI, an aging rocker; Přemek, a retired screenwriter; and Martin, a young IT specialist. The therapy is led by Linda, a recent graduate and single woman, for whom meeting this group of diverse male characters becomes a fateful step not only in her professional career.

The congenial Vojta is bashful and his family is batty. His short-tempered father, who once failed to swim the English Channel, wants him to be a competing swimmer and his loving mother, a former child ice revue star, sees a talented pianist in her son. But Vojta has completely different priorities - most of all his red-haired classmate Ela, an enchanting synchronized swimmer who is leaving for Paris in November. If Vojta doesn't do something radical, and fast, Ela will disappear behind the Iron Curtain forever. The year is 1989.

Dostoevsky’s latter-day opus about the siblings and their father is among the masterpieces of world literature. It asks profound questions about ethics and religion. Is there a God? Does the devil exist? Is everything allowed because we live in a world without morality? And if so, does patricide even constitute a crime? One of the most interesting adaptations of the material is The Karamazovs by Czech director Petr Zelenka. We witness a group of thesps from Prague on a trip to Krakow in Poland to stage the novel as a play in a derelict steelworks as part of the Closer to Life Festival. The project, however, is born under the bad sign, apparently doomed from the start. When they arrive, the roof is about to cave in, so that the actors are told to wear safety helmets. Their sole consistent audience is a laborer (Andrzej Mastalerz) who rather follows each dress rehearsal than watching over his seven-year-old son who has suffered a tragic accident in the factory.

On a Friday night, Kuba introduces his new acquaintance, Honza, to his longtime friend, Vašek. An ordinary evening at a pub is disrupted by the arrival of a stranger named Emily, who happens to join their group. Everything suddenly changes when Honza, driven by his interest in the newcomer, asks Kuba behind Vašek’s back to help him slip a drug into her drink. Kuba is forced to choose between loyalty to his old friend, the desire not to fall short in Honza's eyes, and his own moral principles, as the fate of the unsuspecting Emily suddenly rests in his hands.

Klára has been a relationship coach for many years, during which time she has helped countless satisfied clients and is renowned as the best in the business. David is a successful marketing director at an established company, but his love life is at a standstill. Ever since his marriage was destroyed by a relationship coach, he can't stand any coaches like that. But fate had other plans. Klára and David meet and immediately hit it off. Everything goes well until Klára confesses her real job to David.

Seven seemingly unconnected fairy tales - glued together only by folklore, mood, color and light - make up this Czech collection of visual poetry. The original piece of literature, written by Karel Jaromír Erben in 1853, contained twelve tales.

The distinctive artist, typographer, and writer Josef Váchal is known to the public primarily for his Blood Novel. The surrealistic exuberance of this defense of 19th-century pulp fiction caught the attention of Jaroslav Brabec and his colleagues, who found a corresponding image of 20th-century "trash." The authors' interest focuses primarily on the silent film era, with a journey through the history of cinema continuing through the advent of sound film to the present day (auteur cinema of the 1960s, modern horror), formally employing techniques such as tinted film. The versatile parody intertwines a colorful plot with the story of the author (Váchal/Paseky), who comments on and creates his book, and is further split in the plot into the characters of Fragonard and the Master. As with Váchal, reality increasingly enters the fiction, so that the only "happy ending" turns out to be the artist's finished work.

What led a former top scientist to rob a bank and hold a dozen hostages? Czech Television's crime thriller based on Martin Goffa's novel "The Little Girl" is squeezed into two environments - the interior of a robbed bank with hostages and the interior of a crisis management car, from where the police communicate with the mysterious attacker and try, like him, to play for time and find out more about him. The flashbacks also tell the story of the attacker's daughter Karin from the recent past, gradually revealing a connection with what is happening in the current storyline.

Follows the story of Viktor Purice - manager, former projectionist and lifetime cinephile and his two loyal employees, Cornelia & Lorena, in their everyday battle to preserve Dacia Panoramic Cinema in Piatra Neamt - one of the last remaining cinemas in Romania today. Having lived through "the golden age" of cinema, Viktor dreams of bringing back the good old glory days, yet struggles to keep up with the new harsh reality. In a theater that lacks heating and is slowly falling apart, with no support from the State who owns the place, it’s almost a Don Quixote fight.

Theodora Remundová’s documentary portrait looks at Iva Janžurová’s dramatic and comedic roles in both film and theater, as well as the roles she has played in her family and in social and political life. The director (Janžurová’s daughter) has created a film filled with the truthfulness, sincerity, and capacity for self-reflection of a woman who has devoted her life to acting. The use of clearly staged scenes is combined with an openly acknowledged effort to avoid the kinds of clichés usually found in biographical documentaries to create an organic whole that provides an overview of Janžurová’s pivotal roles while also sharing highly personal and intimate moments from her life. Vít Kořínek (kviff.com)

An exciting drama from a detective history. In 1899 a dead girl - seamstress Anežka Hrůzová - was found between the village of Věžnička and the town of Polná. She was 19 and she had a cutting wound on the throat. There was no sexual violence involved and since the local doctors thought that there was not enough blood on the crime scene, everyone jumped to the conclusion that Jews must have killed her and added her blood to their passover matzot. There was a potential murderer at hand too - a cheeky, not very bright young Jewish rover, Leopold Hilsner…

In this movie, TV sets are full of life. If a person is in TV (e.g. because it was filmed on the street) it has a double that's right in the TV set. This double needs energy from the true character to survive. Each time, the real human watches TV, his Double will pull life energy from him. So there's a mysterious Death-serial. Many persons die in front of their TV set and nobody knows why. Olda, the main character, is one of the persons, that get more and more weak. He is near death, till Fisarek, the natural healer appears. He teaches Olda how he can resist this magic force and how he can fight it.

A classic Czech comedy about the privatization of a small South Bohemian brewery. In a series of comical situations, good Czech police officers encounter the mafia, and honest citizens encounter swindlers. This amusing story, which of course includes a romantic subplot, is significantly influenced by fairy-tale creatures that suddenly emerge from the distant past.

She is the happy mother of a seven-year-old daughter and lives with her partner, journalist Ivan, in a wooden log cabin from the First Republic on the shore of a flooded quarry. The place is idyllic, but the relationship between Renáta and Ivan is more complicated. Ivan is now a forgotten curmudgeon, while Renáta, who has become a director, is at the peak of her powers. She encounters a new and intense love and must make a painful decision about this unexpected problem...

To experience snow and learn German, the young Vietnamese woman Trúc Lâm moves to a little town in the Erz Mountains. During a guided tour of a mine, she leaves her group and reaches the other side of the mountain through a secondary shaft. The world there is similar to the one she left – only all the people are different. She meets Duc, who is also from Vietnam and whose parents have an Asian snack bar. And she meets a mysterious spirit who offers to make a deal with her to enable her return to her old world.

Happily ever after has a bumpy start for a young couple in a magical land when the husband is sent off to battle by a jealous prince.

When Marija learns that her unstable boyfriend has disappeared, she takes to the streets in an attempt to find him.

Operation Danube was the cover name for the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact armies in August 1968. The fleet of Polish tanks which arrive to liberate their neighbor, ostensibly threatened by a counter-revolution, includes the old tank nicknamed Ladybird, which is the last to leave the barracks.

A motley of vacationers on a bus headed for a week long vacation at a seaside resort. Among them: a single, moderately famous singer; a nerdy, onanistic man; a couple of old ladies reaching senility; a couple of young gals looking for an amorous adventure; a family with a boy unsure about where he fits sexually; a beautiful woman that, besides working as a trip guide, has pretensions of being a music composer; a couple of gay men; and another family where the parents are stuck in a sexual ice age while their twentyish daughter is looking to connect with a man.

As World War II rages on, Villi and Colette are captured and sent to Auschwitz concentration camp. Imprisoned within separate compounds, the lovers must risk their lives to be together again.

When a train unexpectedly changes directions, a group of eccentric passengers must work together to reach their destination safely.

Miki Černák, a boy from Telgárt, became a respected boss of a mafia group. But it is not enough for Černák. He wants to dominate all of Slovakia. Become the boss of all bosses. However, the way to the top is lined with traitors and corpses. And Černák underestimated the strongest mafia that ever ruled Slovakia - politicians and their secret service.

In the comedy Party Harder: Summer Massacre, a group of friends from the first part will return. They have already recovered from their terrible party and in the summer they will go to the "Ibiza of the East" - to the Macháč lake, which is a legendary place full of parties, music and free sex. They are trying to earn money for the golden nail of the summer - the Summer Massacre festival, from which they promise the experience of a lifetime and, of course, holiday sex. Will they enjoy the summer or fail miserably and face humiliation, involuntary celibacy or even Serbian militias?

The film captures the life stories and problems of today's young people. On the one hand, there is a love of music and the problems of finding love in life, and on the other, the harsh reality of life in today's society. The fate of the main character is marked by financial problems, but also by the drug history of his loved ones. The film alternates between tragic moments and humorous dialogues, which are often interwoven with the slang expressions of today's youth. The plot is complemented by 12 original songs of various musical genres, sung by the performers.

An angel who ruins everything he touches is sent to Earth to learn about love, forgiveness and selflessness -- and he has just one day to do it.

Druscilla and Baudica continue to take great risks for what they hope will be great rewards in their slave trading business. Choosing the daughter of a German noble family proves to have disastrous consequences as they engage in satisfying their lesbian desires with the ultimate but dangerous game of submission, training women and teens to become their docile submissive dolls to their erotic fantasies and sexual demands.

When Daria disappears after their first date, Marek finds her in a psychiatric hospital. Everything might be part of a disturbing game played by powerful pharmaceutical companies, though the truth may be more frightening than either of them realize.

The title character of this somewhat bitter comedy is Klára Zárubecká, a saleswoman at a train station buffet, a resolute and energetic woman who, with enviable enthusiasm, attempts to restore her family's reputation and thus ensure a happy future for her younger brother. In her everyday life, when Klára forces her customers to buy kittens, rejects a persistent admirer nicknamed Funebrák, and saves money for a large, albeit somewhat neglected villa, her stepbrother Fanda arrives with his girlfriend Erika, and her stepfather Viktor arrives with his mistress, wanting to borrow money from her, as he has done so many times before.

A bitter comedy performed by Divadlo Viola about Ema Destinnová and success that is unforgivable in Bohemia. Four women who were once close to Ema Destinnová bear witness to the successes and downfalls of the "immortal singer," but above all to Czech envy and pettiness, which are apparently also immortal.

A fairy-tale comedy about how a king decided to marry off both of his daughters on the same day. Princess Zlata is a true beauty who has no shortage of suitors. Princess Pepička is less fortunate, as fate has blessed her with a good heart and a sharp mind, but has been stingy with beauty. And so the king decided to marry off his adult daughters at the same time and hold both weddings together.

Lubos, an Alpine rescue worker, surprises his delighted daughter Amálka with an early return to Prague. Her joy leads her to skip school, prompting Lubos to join her class on a Tatra mountains trip. Amidst family chaos and comedic mishaps, their reunion hangs in the balance.

Richard and Alice quarrel on an exotic vacation because Richard wants to get a divorce. They decide to fly home early, but their small plane crashes on a deserted island, forcing Richard and Alice to wait together for rescue.

Story of a small boy is forced to move out of Prague during World War 2 to a small village of Slavonice where he meets the rest of his family. He needs to make new friends and get used to a new life which is immensely different from what this city boy was used to.

Shortly after the Velvet Revolution, everyone becomes an entrepreneur. The fields of business vary. Whether they are legal forms or, on the contrary, organized crime. Young student Nancy arrives in Prague for an internship. She has Czech roots, which is why she chose Prague. Together with journalist Egon and former police officer, now private detective Poldou, they search for a kidnapped 16-year-old girl. Her father is desperate, and even the police are unable to help him. Their search leads them to a Roma gang of prostitution and pornography traffickers who will stop at nothing.

It’s the early 1990s and 13-year-old Valerie, a gifted novice singer, is given the chance to become a member of a world-famous girls’ choir, taking her place alongside her older sister and her other rivals in the ensemble. Everything points to the fact that Valerie’s exceptional talent has caught the attention of the formidable and much admired choirmaster. This highly anticipated psychological drama calls to mind not only the notorious case of Bambini di Praga, but also other devastating situations involving the clash of innocence and abusive authority.

The Šumava Mountains hide buildings lost in the mountains, the Vydra River, a church, a rectory, marshes, a post office, a gold mine, and a hermit's hut. In this environment, the fates of the beautiful girl Anna, a tormented widow, her perpetually drunk husband—a postman—and dentist Holoubek, who left his native Vienna, intertwine. Over the course of the year, their paths cross, but then the summer of 1914 arrives and war intervenes decisively in the lives of all those involved... However, the characters' desires and quests are timeless.

Two mischievous siblings, Klotylda and Barnabáš, fail their final exams at the wizardly lyceum. In their father Zachariáš’s absence, they break the strict rule and open the forbidden thirteenth chamber, accidentally freeing the evil sorcerer Vzdoroděj. He enchants all the adults and sets off to find a powerful gemstone that will destroy their father and conquer the realm. Hiding with their stern Aunt Berta, the children must manage the household while improving their magical skills and learning to cooperate. When Berta’s rescue plan falters and Vzdoroděj approaches, Klotylda and Barnabáš face him alone.

During an unsuccessful burglary attempt, Jaroslav accidentally kills his old neighbour. His wife, Dana, concocts a plan to make the murder seem like an accident. Another neighbour stands in the way, however, whom they also have to eliminate. Dana convinces Jaroslav to help her. They attempt to use this incident to solve some of their financial problems. With the vision of easy money, the Stodolas start killing elderly people. Initially, they proceed to cover up the murders as accidents or suicide and the police do not do much to prove it otherwise.

Tereza is a former prima ballerina at the National Theater who ended her career as a professional dancer after an injury and moved with her husband Petr and seven-year-old daughter Maruška to an abandoned mill in the Broumov region, which she inherited from her grandmother. With dogged determination and limited financial resources, she is renovating the building to create a new home for her family. She earns extra money by running a physical education club at the local school.

Two mischievous siblings, Klotylda and Barnabáš, fail their final exams at the wizardly lyceum. In their father Zachariáš’s absence, they break the strict rule and open the forbidden thirteenth chamber, accidentally freeing the evil sorcerer Vzdoroděj. He enchants all the adults and sets off to find a powerful gemstone that will destroy their father and conquer the realm. Hiding with their stern Aunt Berta, the children must manage the household while improving their magical skills and learning to cooperate. When Berta’s rescue plan falters and Vzdoroděj approaches, Klotylda and Barnabáš face him alone.

During an unsuccessful burglary attempt, Jaroslav accidentally kills his old neighbour. His wife, Dana, concocts a plan to make the murder seem like an accident. Another neighbour stands in the way, however, whom they also have to eliminate. Dana convinces Jaroslav to help her. They attempt to use this incident to solve some of their financial problems. With the vision of easy money, the Stodolas start killing elderly people. Initially, they proceed to cover up the murders as accidents or suicide and the police do not do much to prove it otherwise.

On October 11, 1424, Hussite commander Jan Žižka breathed his last breath near the castle in Přibyslav. With a little exaggeration, it can be said that he never actually died, as he immediately entered national mythology as the prototype of a brilliant military leader and a true Czech. The revolutionary events then took a slightly different course than he would have liked, but his legacy remained ever-present among the Hussites. To this day, Žižka lives on in our society, with books written and films made about him. But even after 600 years of uninterrupted interest, a significant question mark remains over the Trocnov warrior: What was he really like? A deeply religious warrior of God, or just an ordinary medieval cutthroat? Leading Czech historians, headed by Professor Petr Čornej, are attempting to answer this question.

Tereza is a former prima ballerina at the National Theater who ended her career as a professional dancer after an injury and moved with her husband Petr and seven-year-old daughter Maruška to an abandoned mill in the Broumov region, which she inherited from her grandmother. With dogged determination and limited financial resources, she is renovating the building to create a new home for her family. She earns extra money by running a physical education club at the local school.

Documentary maker Jan Holman follows the ultrafamous singer/songwriter Jaromír Novahica during his tour with the band Cechomor. The combination is very succesful, but it draws a heavy toll on the band members and Jan Holman.

Orphaned crown prince Sigismund, controlled by regent Queen Freya, climbs the Falcon dynasty's sacred tower with help from sorceress Eleonor, reawakened to magic by her adopted daughter Rapunzel, Sigi’s childhood friend. After Eleonor’s refusal to serve the queen again lands her and Rapunzel in the dungeon, Sigi helps them flee to a hidden tower only reachable via Rapunzel’s enchanted hair. But with the queen’s spies in pursuit, a final clash looms.

The aging couple might have been enjoying a gracious autumn of their lives had it not been for a crack in the wall that revealed a secret that changed their lives forever. A secret that became a nightmare. A secret of the past... Can the past kill? A loving couple enters the abandoned house she has chosen as a meeting place one wet and rainy morning. It could have been an ordinary date. On inspection, they enter a room with only a small window and one door. Suddenly the door closes... an eye watches them through a crack in the wall. That eye doesn't bode well!

A devoted gardener and his wife live peacefully at the foot of a hill, tending their nursery according to nature’s rhythms. When a new castle owner seeks to transform the entire estate and demands they sell their garden business, the couple refuses. In response, the owner erects barbed-wire fences and places a guard at the entrance road…

The puppet film Mashkin Killed Koshkin, based on the short story of the same name by Daniil Kharms, is a small, absurd story of two heroes who personify the essence of the so-called "Russian soul".

When sisters Jana and Anna meet their half-brother at their father's funeral, the siblings' lives entwine as they navigate relationships and setbacks.

This Hrebejk’s comedy is set in Prague, four years after the democratic “Velvet revolution” of 1989. This was an era of sudden freedom, transition and confusion. Most people got carried away, quickly abandoning the old values and uncritically accepting the new. Some people just took a break…

What is the meaning of life? What is love, humor, fear and death? Is it all just a dream? Who are we and where are we heading? Will we wake up, will we remember?

Princess Elen wakes up on her birthday knowing she must either kill the evil witch who cursed her or find her true love. The princess has got one last chance to save herself and the kingdom. If she doesn´t manage either, the kingdom will be destroyed. Will she be able to persuade her friends, break the strong spell and defeat the powerful witch?

Inspired by the stories of the American writer Raymond Chandler, the classical hero is private detective Phil Marlowe, a romantic cowboy, who takes the law into his own hands in the rough prairie of a large city.

A story told through the eyes of a stray dog called Gump . On a journey to find his way home to his owner, Gump encounters many challenges, meets new people, and makes a few canine friends along the way. A story about the devotion of a dog, who without hesitation will give his own life for the life of its beloved owner.

Josef is a successful violin maker. He enjoys seeing the instruments he makes bring joy to people all over the world. He himself prefers to spend his time in his workshop in the courtyard of a tenement house. He has never been to the sea; his sea is a puddle in the courtyard, which he protects from drying out so that the birds have something to drink. He has no wife or children, only his dog Pampeliška, who accompanies him everywhere. Josef secretly loves his beautiful neighbor Anežka and looks forward to Wednesday chess games with his best friend Václav, a charismatic piano tuner.

After the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, Libuše Jarcovjáková, a young female photographer, strives to break free from the constraints of Czechoslovak normalization and embarks on a wild journey towards freedom, capturing her experiences on thousands of subjective photographs.

The four best friends are confident, smart, having fun, discussing men, relationships and sex. But they're also taking care of kids, or they just had kids, or they're pregnant. Sara has a nice ass, so she started taking pictures of it and living in the world of social media. Hedvika lives in a bit of a golden cage, her workaholic husband isn't home much, so it's no wonder she's charmed by the young busker David. Zuzana, after her break-up with Kamil, is penniless, just a worked-up and hurried mother of two. Slovak immigrant Eliska, on the other hand, has a great boyfriend, unbearable parents, is pregnant and is sick of everything.

From the makers of legendary CZECH DREAM, a hilarious documentary about a hoax hypermarket, comes CZECH PEACE, a new playfully explosive flm about the mayor of a small Czech village and his attempts to foil the American plan to build its 762nd military base right on his doorstep. The players in this story are everyone from villagers to George W. Bush, Condoleezza Rice, Barack Obama, peace activists and lobbyists representing American arms manufacturers. Can the Mayor of Trokavec (population 80) take the US on? CZECH PEACE shows the workings of geopolitics and the way they affect the little people. The personal clashes with the impersonal, the specifc with the universal, and an individual with the so-called great history.

The story of the dramatic fate of the Czech climber Josef speck and his comrades, executed by the Nazis in April 1945 in Theresienstadt.