Discoveries from Czechoslovakia World Cinema

A story about the problems of a contemporary woman in her everyday life. Through the lives of a mother and her two daughters, there is a noticeable effort to capture the fragile world of women, connected with the struggle for independence and self-realization.

Sir John Falstaff, a bon vivant and womanizer, courts Mrs. Ford one day and Mrs. Page the next. They are cheerful but respectable ladies, so they devise a plan to punish the old rogue and teach him a lesson about his immoral advances and womanizing.

The fairy from the Beautiful Rose gave Zachýsek an unusual gift. Who knows why he was gifted with the talent to appropriate the abilities and merits of other people and thus gain undeserved honors and general sympathy. Was it possible to recognize what Zachýsek really is? This fairy tale will answer that.

At the turn of the 10th and 11th centuries Boleslav's kingdom fell apart in the fratricidal war between the Přemyslovci and the other clans the main profiteer of this being the German emperor. At that time it seemed as if the Czech state and the lineage of its princes was awaiting its end..." It is with these words that the tale of this film begins, whose narrative is based upon the the play by František Hrubín of the same name.

Even children in an over-technified civilization need fairy tales, and Mrs. Fairy Tale invites them into her world. The woodcutter goes to the forest with his children, Hansel and Gretel. While their father works, the children pick strawberries. However, they get lost deep into the forest and lose their way back. After a sinister night, they find themselves in front of a honey gingerbread house. While peeling gingerbread, the witch catches them: she locks the skinny Hansel in a cage to fatten him up, and makes the plump Gretel her helper. However, benevolent angels watch over both children, appearing to them in their dreams and giving them hope for salvation.

The story of a poor, disintegrating family of a mother Fišerová and her three children. It is set in the 1890s - a time when the poor working classes did not yet have the right to vote or a permanent eight-hour working day.

The hero of this popular fairy tale is a young prince who, after the death of his parents, goes out into the world. During his travels he meets a magical talking horse and falls in love with the beautiful princess Slavna. On the advice of his horse, he binds one eye and pretends to be dumb and enters into service as the castle gardener.

In the era of the rise of Nazism in Germany, a strange man, exhibited in a circus for the amusement of the audience, is found to be the heir to a large fortune. The new owner must learn social behaviour and resist the advances of those who would like to seize his fortune themselves.

The female employees of the poultry-processing factory find relief from their monotonous work in chatting about weddings and marriages. The very young Zdena (Marta Vancurová), too, dreams about a white veil and an entourage of bridesmaids. On her return home from work, she runs into a peculiar man on an abandoned road who pertinaciously offers to read her palm for a few crowns to buy soup. His augury is rather usual - wealth and poverty, suffering and happiness. Then however, he declares that Zdena must marry exactly on 3 November of that year otherwise she will be unhappy.

The film could have been a lyrical evocation of the ČSSR's first generation: the youngsters born during the war, who grew up in a state violently at pains to find and define itself, and were now ready to break away from the nation-builder ethics of their elders – but Grečner turned it into an anxiety-riddled existentialist vision of a whole globe in fear.

A dark fable set in an early 1950s Czech village, a time of Soviet-style socialism which saw the implementation of collectivized agriculture and the mass closure of monasteries and convents.

The charming Indian girl Madeline is the wife of the gold digger Charlie, called the King. While they were in the wilderness, his wife was very suitable for him. But now he is selling the land and wants to run a big house. So he needs a woman to represent him. His favorite becomes Freda, a girl from the local dance hall. Madeline is taken in by the Malemute Kid, Jack Harrington and Stanley Perry, who give her lessons in singing, dancing and social behavior. Madeline soon surpasses "her rivals" with her natural intelligence and charm...

A funny adventures of a group of children who plan to leave their village in go for the sea trip.

A coming of age drama about a young boy Jirka who lives in Prague.

In the tense dramatic situation of a June night in 1815, a few hours before a battle that seems lost in advance, Napoleon has a choice: either go into battle and risk not winning it, or not go into battle, which of course means abdicating. To give up absolute power and offer his military experience to the people, to the republic...

Two cronies, Brument and Cornu, are on trial. They are accused of attempting to murder Brumant's wife. The woman's interrogation reveals that both gentlemen were, as usual, heavily intoxicated that day. Brumant, who is having financial problems, has offered his wife to his cronies for sale. The price will depend on how much water she displaces when immersed in a barrel. And they immediately make the attempt...

Two historical stories about love. In the story "The Arabian Horse", the scheming townsman Messer Francesco Vergellesi is so firmly convinced of his wife's virtue that he does not hesitate to bet her against a rare stallion he has a crush on... The story "The Earrings" shows how a poor girl can help herself to a rare jewel and what intrigues are needed for an elderly noble couple to finally have an heir...

Energetic Dr. Alice Váňová becomes the pit doctor at Mír Mine and spearheads a silicosis prevention study requiring miners to drink milk regularly. The miners, led by a tight-knit group, stubbornly refuse public participation. Determined union chair Janeček resorts to psychological tactics and pressure campaigns to force their compliance, turning a health initiative into a tense battle of wills.

A group of wealthy American Jewish businessmen have been captured by the SS and are told that they are to be traded to the American army for several SS officers. However, these hostages are being required to pay bribes for their "transportation costs." In order to ensure that the businessmen will be more cooperative in paying up, a beautiful female singer is placed in their midst as a bargaining chip. The group of hostages are then placed on a train which is supposed to take them to the ship that will deliver them to freedom, but a series of "mishaps" delays their escape.

Small stories from a grammar school.

Depiction of Czech students in the 1950s. The kids are less interested in communism than in rock n’ roll. Czech authorities deemed the work decadent and subversive, which led to the director being kicked out of film school.

The hero, rushing from one misfortune to another, is former accountant Řehoř Maršíček, who after a heart attack, out of fear of death, decides to live a calm, moderate life and follow the principles of a healthy lifestyle. Not to smoke, not to drink, to exercise and eat healthily. He takes up the position of an auditor of patients and hopes that he will have peace in his new job. Instead, he experiences one nervous breakdown after another. He gradually makes one good resolution after another. Řehoř falls into unhealthy food, alcohol and women. In addition, he gradually loses most of his life's certainties, including a roof over his head. The result is a second heart attack, after which the hero promises himself again that he will fix everything and live a healthy life.

The Sultan awaits the arrival of his son, Prince Omar, who has brought up in a distant land. The master tailor and his assistances are making clothes for the prince. Labakan, the most gifted of his assistances, craves to be a Sovereign's heir so he steals the princely garments snd poses as the Sultan's son.

At the center of the crime story is the very large Kremp family, living in the family villa with other relatives and a subtenant. The parents had four adult children, two sons and two daughters, one of whom recently died. The investigation focuses on the recent death of their son Jan. The young man was considered the family "fool", whom no one except his mother liked, because he played various mischievous tricks on everyone. However, his death, as Captain Exner investigates, was not an unfortunate accident, but a murder. Who could have been interested in his death? Was the murderer someone from the immediate family? Captain Exner is looking for a motive...

Adam Krt, a village farmer and shoemaker, lives in a happy marriage with his wife Eva. He is only afraid of her when he gets drunk and does something stupid. One day Adam successfully sells all the shoes he has made at a fair and uses the money to buy a heifer on his way home, directly from his neighbour Trnka (I. Rajniak). While the two of them are having a lavish "old-mash" in the pub, the heifer disappears. The trouble is that Adam has paid for the animal at the pub but has not yet taken possession of it. The two neighbours can neither find the heifer, nor can they agree who actually owned the lost animal....

Young Jan Stehlík signs up for a job to build a new mine. On the train he meets the pretty Alena, who falls in love with him. However, she means nothing to the superficial Jan, and when the girl becomes his lover, he treats her rudely and insultingly. But Alena's relationship troubles the honest Joseph, who really likes her.

A young man studying law finds a place to stay with a young conductor, thinking that he will find an idyllic Lesser Town atmosphere here and will be able to prepare for his exams in peace. The house is inhabited by distinctive characters. The owner, who sometimes loses his memory, and his lovely, modest daughter of marriageable age live here, as do an unsuccessful painter and his temperamental wife, as well as a certain mysterious Provazník, who writes anonymous letters to his neighbors in order to have malicious fun at their expense. However, the landlady causes the young man the greatest trouble...

Antony is obsessed with the idea of a happy family life, but his young daughter has to be cared for by the parents of his wife, who died in a car accident. Unfortunately, Martha, whom Antony has somewhat recklessly married, has a fundamentally different vision of her future than he does.

Honza and Zuzana are very young husband and wife. They have a little daughter of whom willingly occasionally take care the grandparents and Honza's fifteen-year-old brother Martin. Zuzana continues studying and Honza devotes all weekends as an amateur competitor to the motor-cycles at the speedway. Zuzana is not interested in motor-cycles. Martin holds responsible for his brother's marriage and at the advice of his friend Magda, who is of the same age, invites her sister-in-law to the club of Hucul horses so that she does not feel bored. But by misfortunes and unexplained quarrels both young husband and wife start being jealous of one another.

Sudetenland, May 1945. A group of retreating German soldiers capture a group of young female workers, totally deployed in a chemical factory. He wants to use them as hostages during his advance to the American demarcation line. Together with them, they take refuge in a nearby castle, which soon becomes the site of the last battle that takes place both in the minds and in the backdrop of war-torn Czechoslovakia, shortly before liberation. A psychological probe as well as an intimate drama set within the walls of a small castle, it is a mosaic of mini-stories charting the fates, attitudes and thought processes of individual characters on both sides of the barricade.

Tereza lives and works in Prague. She meets a handsome man, Tommie, speaking in a language incomprehensible to her. It seems that he is the manager of the Finnish ice hockey team. A love story starts to blossom. When the coach of the Czech ice hockey team tries to use Tereza to retrieve information about the strategy of the Finnish team, Tommie leaves Tereza. Will Tereza be able to clear up this misunderstanding?

A fictional story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's stay in Prague. The film, in no case, claims any historical facts. It only tries to evoke the spirit of that time by connecting Mozart's music with the architecture of Prague and by pointing up the changes in Prague during Mozart's two-hundred absence in the Czech metropolis.

Once again, you can take a look behind the scenes of the Riviera Chateau on the Prague periphery, where a brothel for the socialites is hidden under the guise of an exclusive nightclub. The story takes place in 1930 and although several years have passed since the events of the first volume, the passions unleashed by the intrigues of the time have not cooled down. Once again you meet Renata, called Angel, formerly a prostitute, now the wife of the banker Justice and owner of the Riviera. The elegant Madame, who owned the business before and now works there as a mere manager, is plotting new schemes to get back everything she has...

At the year 1946, the time of the Nuremberg Process. One of the main actors of the Second World War, who reportedly committed suicide, Adolf Hitler is, however, missing. The Czech doctor Herman (Karel Höger) is kidnapped from Prague and driven to the sanatorium of Professor Rolf Harting (Jirí Vrstála). The sanatorium is a disguised military stronghold, most probably occupied by a Nazi garrison, with prison cells and an execution chamber in the basement. At night, Herman is taken to a patient in whom he, to his horror, recognizes Hitler (Fritz Diez).

A small Moravian town near Brno in the 1920s. In a forest clearing, the mentally disabled Fricek discovers three dead young people: the nineteen-year-old daughter of the local forest ranger Růžena, the butcher's assistant Hrnčíř, and the former student Roubal. Thus begins a detective story that screenwriter Roman Ráž wrote based on a true story. Inspector Vrba is in charge of investigating the case.

Autumn 1944. A doctor is accused in the collaboration with the Nazis and found guilty...

The film is inspired by the life of the Goral population in the Orava region, a life connected with the beautiful but harsh nature, rich in emotional expressions of folk culture. Against this backdrop unfolds the story of a young musician's unfulfilled love for an enchantingly beautiful girl.

An orphaned young woman named Jana moves into the household of Robert and his older, possessive wife, Klára. While Klára maintains a strict and manipulative control over the home, a mutual attraction develops between Robert and Jana. The three characters continue to live together as their domestic tensions increase.

During his work assignment in Tamani Kingdom, Czech worker Lojza saves a local man from dying in the desert. Two years later, it turns out the saved man was also the Taman king; and he has decided to name Lojza, a communist, his royal heir.

A lyrical tale of the pure, vernal romance between a diffident, somewhat naive girl from a rural backwater and a fairly dissolute, but kind-hearted law student from Prague.

Once upon a time, there was a kingdom where a spoiled and conceited princess lived. She didn't like frogs and other similar vermin, so she didn't like it very much when they suddenly started jumping on her from everywhere. In the local pond, there lived a waterman whose water machine for water lilies broke down. Instead of beautiful flowers, he produced croaking frogs. However, the waterman didn't like the princess's behavior at all and as punishment, he made her speechless. She can only be freed if she kisses the frog. So the prince and the young diver enter the story to put everything in order. Will the princess kiss the frog? And who will finally earn the improved princess as his wife?

In 1900, Stepha, the vivacious 30 year old daughter of a wealthy couple, agrees to marry her cousin Paul, who has accumulated large debts as an Austrian army officer. Paul refuses to work or to consummate the marriage, and then his health steadily declines.

Lucie Rýdlová is found dead at a destroyed car after a night accident. The seat position shows that she cannot have been driving, and the dissection proves that she had died about four hours after the accident. It is for sure that a timely medical assistance could have saved her life. A pretty young tennis player Lucie lived at her grandmother, because her parents had been working abroad. Criminalists found out that the girl was going out with the interpreter Valenta (Eduard Cupák), who was twenty years older than her, divorced and a bit egoistic man.

A rich bachelor, Pavel Haken, tries - with the help of his faithful servant - to escape the courtship of marriageable young ladies. They meet at a ladies' social club. In the cafeteria there, he is helped by the talkative Andula, the daughter of a poor taxi driver. Haken longs for peace and has a secluded weekend villa built for him. The brief silence that followed his mother's departure is interrupted by the inhabitants of a tent camp. The girls from the club have taken advantage of Mrs. Haken's offer and camped on their property, and Andula helps out in the camp kitchen...

It all starts when two men arrive at the asylum. Mr. Houdek, who goes to see little Honzik Slavata, the illegitimate child of his colleague, whom he wants to adopt, and young Standa Hurych, who takes up a position as a driver. The pretty nurse Magda mistakes Standa for his father and is angered by his reaction. However, when Mrs. Houdková insists that the adoption will not take place until the child's true father is known, Standa offers to help Magda track down the father. He immediately sets about the difficult task.

Film makes the creative process visible by letting its narrative flow in the mind of a foreign director who is researching a film about Franz Kafka in Prague. Based on the principle of dreams and free association, segments unfold that deal with the various points of view that Kafka's work, personality and fate offer. In the labyrinth of his mind, the fictional director projects himself into situations from the author's life, with Kafka himself as his guide. At the same time, he delves into the history of the persecution of the Jews and glimpses the monstrosity of the bureaucratic apparatus that Kafka anticipated but could not have foreseen the monstrous size and function it would grow to a few years after his death in the institutionalized genocide and overall machinery of Nazism.

Three detective stories from industrial Ostrava. Police search in vain for a missing 16-year-old girl, but succeed in finding a mentally disturbed infant kidnapper. In a case of robbery, at the cost of injuring one of the investigators, they manage to apprehend a lover fleeing with stolen money across the border to Poland...

In a small village in the Chodsko region, people live with daily worries about making a living. Many are dependent on work on the estate. Only the priest Jiří is able to stand up against the undignified conditions here, but he receives no gratitude, because the steward turns the villagers against him. Staněk, an engineer whose son Ondřej is studying at a grammar school, also works on the estate. The boy would like to continue studying law in Prague and is very surprised by his mother's wish for him to become a priest. His mother relies on the priest to talk Ondřej out of it. However, Jiří was once in the same situation, so he knows how difficult it is to perform well a mission that one has not chosen for oneself...

The hero of the opening story, the Postman Puppet (directed by Zdeněk Troška), works as a postman in the mountains. When his wife is taken to the maternity ward, he goes on his usual hike through the solitudes. Little Libor goes after the father of two girls (Petr Pospíchal), who longs for a son. Meanwhile, the weather on the ridges worsens sharply. An experienced mountaineer and his little friend spend the night in a makeshift shelter... The second episode of Hádanka (directed by Jan Ekl) has a criminal plot. A new father (Vlastimil Hašek) gets drunk with friends in a wine bar and the next day becomes a suspect in a murder. He doesn't remember the critical moments, but his testimony leads to the capture of the real perpetrator... The main character of the final short story True Love (directed by Vladimír Drha) is a frat boy (Pavel Zedníček) who spends whole days in pubs. He gets a harsh lesson from his wife, who refuses to let him see the baby...

Wenceslas II, who already has adult children Eliška and Václav, refuses to marry the young Alžběta Rejčka. In the end, he succumbs to the insistence of Abbot Konrád. The queen brings him Poland as a dowry, and Wenceslas II thus expands his empire. He still lives in the shadow of his great father, Přemysl Otakar II, and his lords reproach him for his weakness and inability to fight. Wenceslas is truly afraid of the moment when he will have to lead an army into the field and prefers to settle disputes diplomatically. His fencing teacher Hynek of Dubá and his mistress Anežka know about the king's weakness, and Václav seeks their company rather than his young wife. However, Rejčka admires the king and trusts him with the charm of a young girl. The enemy invades the country and advances quickly. It is necessary to confront him in the field, but the king hesitates and postpones the decision.