Discoveries from Czech Republic World Cinema

This existential drama depicts a godless and stressed family whose members do not live happy lives. A household without joy and pervaded by nervousness, dissatisfaction, and frustration creates an oppressive atmosphere. Everyone hides their desires and dreams within themselves. Unexpectedly, a bigoted grandmother visits this family and begins to "save" them. The mother, father, and teenage daughter are exposed to her criticism on a daily basis, and the grandmother's idea of redemption is forcefully imposed on them. The family undergoes a forced transformation, especially when apparent miracles begin to happen. However, this process increasingly repels the granddaughter, who is experiencing her own adolescent problems, and her clash with her grandmother ends in tragedy.

The primary motif of the documentary is the journey. A metaphorical journey, a spiritual journey, a tangible journey, a forest path, a road, a sidewalk, a drug trip, or a journey abroad. The director pastes together a collage of micro-stories of people and places that comment on the journey. Her documentary oscillates between playful absurdism, existentialism and existential questions, environmentalism, and social commentary. The dynamism and rhythm of the narrative are then determined by the jumps between different forms of video, such as analogue film, digital film, and mobile phone filming.

Anna and Jakub are a young couple on a journey to make friends. Their car breaks down and they are stranded in a small town where they have to spend the night. They stay in a hotel and get to know the locals. As the whole small town prepares for an upcoming medieval parade, long-suppressed feelings and problems in the two young people's relationship begin to surface.

King Henry disapproves of the love between his daughter Doubravka and Thomas, the gardener and son of a friend who died for him in battle. He is convinced that Thomas cannot take over the kingdom because he is not of noble birth and, moreover, is too kind-hearted. And a ruler must be tough. The noble Prince Arthur of Nebesníže, who can also talk to echoes, would be a more suitable groom. Tomáš and the princess defend their love and each in their own way defy the king's will. Tomáš fights the prince of Nebesníže with echoes, and Doubravka runs away from the castle. If it weren't for the good flower fairy from the castle greenhouse, Anna's nanny, and the old gamekeeper, who knows how their young love would have ended.

This 10- year documentary follows the Alhariri family, as they integrate into Czech society, despite their different faith, culture, and traditions. While Amira becomes the cultural anchor of the family, her husband, Abdul, works hard in a small kebab shop. Their eldest son, Kenan, is scarred by his experiences of war, and struggles to find new values. His younger brother, Montaser, on the other hand, is clear about his inherited values. Son Adnan and daughter Zaina fit in perfectly with their Czech classmates from the first grade, while the youngest children, Hamud and Kamar, still have time to find their way. Amira knows what life in Europe has to offer, but she never stops believing in a return to her homeland.

The story of a dead fish, of his resurrection and that too much knowledge isn’t always a good thing.

The story is based on Czech fairy tales, which depict water sprites as creatures indistinguishable from humans. They can help humans and form deeper relationships with them. A humanized water sprite also helps the fearful Florianek find happiness. However, as it turns out, Florianek would not have won his beloved without his own courage...

The thrilling atmosphere of a concert by legendary jazz trumpeter Laco Déczi. Since entering the professional music scene more than fifty years ago, he has become a living legend who established the style of modern jazz. Laco Déczi's concert exudes his energy, personality, and sense of humor, which is why he is rightly considered one of the greatest figures of Czechoslovak jazz. We bring you a recording of the legendary jazz trumpeter's concert from the Sono Center in Brno.

Young woman confesses from her inner trauma and fears from surveillance as an experience of her movement through the city. Those are generated during the time of lockdown and social distancing.

A young director follows an aging professor in search of recipes for the life of the body and soul. But what will a Serbian nationalist and close friend of Ratko Mladic advise a girl with a family in Bosnia? A dialogue about transcending one's own prejudices and ideologies in an attempt to find reconciliation.

A rube named Pepa (Leos Noha) robs cottages for cash and spends his free time swilling rum at fourth-rate establishments. The discovery of a strange video recording points him to a place where he'll find a treasure of immense value. The mysterious place in northern Bohemia, however, awakens avarice far and wide and, seemingly, it's got a plan for all those who turn up.

The life of a young man (Jan Cina) is defined by order and modern technology; the closest he gets to any form of real communication is when he sprays his pet snail with water in its terrarium. But then the most common of all household appliances ceases to function and the man has to go out and be among people. In her short piece set in a familiar future, director Tereza Vejvodová conceivably builds on the aesthetics of her sculptural film accompanying the production Land of Body at Prague’s National Theatre. Intertwining limbs and torsos are extensions of the silent protagonist’s mind; his world is polished down to complete emptiness. What's the point of us having control of our every step if no-one else accompanies us on our walk?

Thirty-year-old Prokop Randa returns to his native village, where he seeks peace and reconciliation with his life's failures. Jan Čep's novel, first published in 1935, inspired a group of students at Palacký University in Olomouc to attempt to create an experimental film story.

The film reveals the plight of Somali pirates, mostly former fishermen, who, as a result of the global fishing industry, can no longer make a living from the sea as they once did and have to join up with pirate cartels in order to feed themselves and their families.

A new television film from a series that always focuses on the complex fate of a prominent female personality. Under the title Holky šikovný (Clever Girls), stories will be created in which women - screenwriters, dramaturges, directors, and actresses - will play a significant role. Zuzana Stivínová, in the lead role of this television film, struggles with a dangerous illness. She moves to the countryside with her entire family to raise goats and change her lifestyle. Her great role model is an elderly woman, a prominent rural authority figure, who convinces her that goat's milk will help her the most.

This documentary about the people of Blšany is seen through the eyes of Mr. Tříska, the local one-room school principal and an amateur filmmaker, creator of a movie about “the smallest community in the world with a first league soccer team.” He guides us through an eerie village marked by Communism, a hamlet awakened from its lethargy once every two weeks by a first league soccer match. “Meetings were also held in the country,” claims Tříska, “but executions and trials took place in town. A person had to be careful in the country if he didn’t want to be denounced, but when he went to the doctor he knew he wouldn’t pay for prescriptions; and the bus cost a crown fifty, not ten like today.”

he story of an unusual journey or a staged piece of contemplation? However we perceive this tale of a couple wandering through the Czech countryside, we can best experience it by yielding to the calm tempo of their journey through the shady woods.

This documentary takes us to Zambia, a country with significant copper reserves. The state used to mine and sell copper itself. Then its price fell and the mines were forced to privatize in favor of Western multinational companies. While the proceeds used to finance schools, healthcare, and infrastructure, today all the money leaves the country, including generous subsidies from the European Investment Bank. Czech documentary filmmaker Ivo Bystřičan and cameraman Jiří Málek come to see what the situation, which seems to be taken straight out of the daily news in the Western world, really looks like. We are used to looking at the so-called Third World through the eyes of passionate activists fighting poverty and all kinds of humanitarian organizations. The Copper Age, on the other hand, soberly shows that we should be more interested in what this "selfless" aid looks like in practice.

Patients flock to the newly opened "slimming" sanatorium with the aim of losing weight. And although each of them has a different reason for doing so, they are all now undergoing the most bizarre procedures and exercises under the supervision of an ascetic head physician, all without food, alcohol, or sex. For most of them, this makes their stay at the sanatorium a nightmare. Jedlík's characters are romantic and foolish, funny and touching, and none of them lack a sense of humor. They are all guided by love, for people, things, work, and, of course, food, and each of them ultimately finds it.

Honzík has to spend his holidays with his grandfather because his divorced mother is very busy. However, she doesn't want her father, a former military pilot, to tell her grandson anything about airplanes. She doesn't like airplanes because her childhood memories are mostly of her father constantly being at the airport, and when her mother died, she had to take care of everything herself. The film is about the love of flying. A love that brings both joy and pain in equal measure. It is a story about searching for lost relationships. About building new trust between loved ones. About the permanence of certain values that we often wastefully overlook, not out of malice, but because we take them for granted. The entire film is interwoven with unique real footage of MIG21 fighter jets, the likes of which have never been filmed before and probably never will be again. Other flight scenes feature a number of beautiful machines, from historic gliders to the L159 ALCA.

Monroe, Aura, Marlene: Three drag queens from the Ukrainian LGBTQ+ community raise funds for the frontlines, re-defining resilience and hope between glamorous shows and wartime life.

With new singer Tereza Černochová, brand new costumes, and their latest album Bad Time For Gentlemen, the beloved and critically acclaimed Monkey Business set out on tour to delight their fans, honored with an Anděl 2018 award for winning in the Band of the Year category. At the Brickhouse multifunctional club in Dolní oblast Vítkovice, Ostrava, at a concert recorded on February 16, 2019, singer Matěj Ruppert and bandleader Roman Holý and their band offered an energetic show featuring both new songs from their latest album, nominated for the Anděl music awards, and a selection of the most popular songs from the band's successful 20-year career.

A tragicomic documentary road movie that follows the path of a law that could affect millions of lives. “The Law of Love” guarantees everyone, regardless of sexual orientation, the right to marry – and it is supported by the majority of Czechs. Who, then, is bothered by this bill that has stirred up so much passion, such atypically emotional response? What, for that matter, is the difference between marriage and registered partnerships?

The film is a humorous exploration of married life, exaggerating the image of a "tired" sex life of a middle-aged couple. The search for the reasons behind his workaholic partner's lack of interest in marital sex leads him to believe that she is unsatisfied with sex with him for one reason only: he allegedly has a small penis. While comparing the size of his penis with his friend Boris, he is caught by his wife Vlaďka, who becomes convinced that her husband Leon is having an affair with his friend. At the same time, Leon envies the rich sex life of his neighbor Tomáš, who works as a television producer, filming journalistic reports on fraud and corruption, with Vlaďka as his assistant. Leon's brother-in-law Evžen is a member of a religious sect and tries to recruit Leon, but Leon resists. The story unfolds against a backdrop of misunderstandings arising from unclear information and constructions created by the individual characters...

Working conditions in the worst-paid jobs in the Czech Republic were examined by journalist Saša Uhlová during six months. She spent several weeks in a hospital laundrette, poultry house, cash register or waste sorting facility. Her experience became the basis of a lived and very personal report of invisible employees working in appalling conditions. Uhlová wrote a series of reports on her project that were published on the Alarm website. Apolena Rychlíková made them into a documentary film consisting of scenes shot at Uhlová's home and video footage taken during her work. Uhlová accompanies the picture with read commentary.

A small minotaur, his Mum Medusa, a Cyclops delivery guy, the neighbors the Grey Sisters... Legendary characters from the Greek mythology live their lives and solve their problems in today's world.

They came from Poland, Russia, Ukraine, the Czech Republic and France - forced laborers who ensured that life in Germany was maintained and that supplies reached the German front during the Second World War. They were often deported to Germany at a young age and had to live in adverse conditions.

One of Vítězslav Nezval's most striking stories about unfaithful yet devoted love, full of suspenseful twists and turns and an enchanting chivalrous world, was first staged at the National Theater in 2016, losing none of its impressiveness and power. In 2021, Daniela Špinar, director of the original theater production, retold it in a highly original form using the language of film, shooting it as a film project in the authentic surroundings of the historic theater building.

The film takes place on the eighth day of Russia's war campaign in Ukraine. Eight Ukrainians residing in the Czech Republic – a businesswoman, cleaning ladies, construction workers, and bus drivers – make their own diary-like observations of the events in their homeland. They continue to bury themselves in their work, unable to afford to withdraw themselves from their current lives. In their minds, however, they've transported themselves hundreds of kilometers away, helping their fellow countrymen and women by any means necessary. They provide accommodation for refugees, scout for bulletproof vests, and call their loved ones who’ve taken shelter from falling bombs. They have a hectic and emotionally overwhelming 24 hours ahead of them. But it’s not the first 24 hours and it won’t be the last.

A comedy about a quirky tour guide and two women who want to experience true love in their lives.

The director Vít Klusák is shooting a film about his father, the well-known composer Emil Viklický, but the latter wants nothing to do with it. This creates a portrait without portraiture, since the director places a double in the role of his father, whom he finds through an advertisement published in newspapers. What is interesting is that Klusák does not know his real father personally, but only meets him (or fails to meet him) for the second time in his life while filming...

A young high school student is flying to Canada for a study abroad program. He is very excited and does not even notice the subconscious fear of his parents, especially his mother. When a tragedy occurs far away "across the pond," it turns the lives of all the characters in this story upside down. It shakes up their destinies, lives, feelings, moods, and even their futures...But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

The ocean is paradise for Fran the shrimp. Nothing escapes her deadly pincers. For the blind fish Milva, it's a daily struggle for survival.Fran finds her magnificent and wishes she could see the ocean that way too. Will they be able to overcome their differences ?