Discoveries from Czechoslovakia World Cinema

A television film about the life and times of Slovak emigrant Štefan Banič, who was granted a patent in the United States for the invention of the parachute.

Czech television production of Dracula that is very faithful to Bram Stoker's novel.

The relationship between a teenage daughter and her mother is not an easy time in the life of either of them. But for Jana Burešová and her Simona, it means digging deep into their consciences and searching for sensitive places where the past can be revealed and a path to the future can be found. It is at her forty-fifth birthday party that a devastated Jana learns from the police that her daughter has secretly given birth. The next day, she visits her daughter in the maternity ward, but she refuses to talk to her because she cannot forgive her mother's lack of interest, the fault of which is that she did not even know her daughter was pregnant.

Businessman Karel Bočan is a swindler who writes down the debts of his victims in a green notebook. He is stopped by an observant boy who reveals the fraudster and dealer in stolen goods in it.

The growing conflict between the unruly owner of the villa and his lodger ends up in court. The cohabitation ends in bodily harm - and the film actually translates two versions of the same events, as seen by each of the parties involved. However, the attempt at morality, which proclaimed the necessity of removing the old survivals in people's thinking, did not quite work, and the testimony presented is at times a bit stiff.

Based on Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale "Mikula and Mikulka".

In a South Bohemian village in 1951, the local rich organize acts of sabotage and try to stop the establishment of an agricultural cooperative with threatening letters and arson. A kulak's son even secretly returns from the West to terrorize the village with his brother. However, the ordinary villagers stand up to them.

The two heroes of the film's story - the decent but dry engineer Zárub and the marriage swindler Majer - are granted this wish by the mysterious forces of the moon. The two men change their appearance, which, however, contrasts sharply with their unchanged characters and voices. The incomprehensible swap naturally becomes the source of many comic plots and situations.

A lonely woman gets more than she bargained for when she begins wooing Mr Devil, an insatiable glutton who turns out to be the boyfriend from Hell.

A dramatic story of three friends happily spending time on their own in a mountain cottage in the High Tatras. On the arrival of the wife of one of them their perfect friendship is put to a test.

Detective Lieutenant Boruvka (Lubomír Lipský) is called to the State Scientific Library to investigate the loss of a precious manuscript, the Infernal Psalter of the Occult Sciences by Master Peregrinus from the eleventh century, written in a secret script which has only recently been deciphered by senior lecturer Zajíc (Josef Chvalina). Chaos is reigning in the labyrinth of passages and halls of the former monastery where the library is housed. In order to save space the director of the library has introduced a peculiar system. The books are arranged in the bookcases according to height and six girls dressed in black, the library assistants, are quite happy to cut volumes down to size in case of need. Boruvka refuses the case, since he is specialist in murders. He has to return to the investigation, however, when senior lecturer Zajíc disappears.

A bunch of old friends reunite for the start of the rail tunnel construction. The miner Vojta Balvín is a dedicated worker, but at the same time a stubborn man. It is only a work accident that clarifies relations between him and the other workers...

The story of high school students, talented Jan and Karel, who has a problem with math. Their life affects pedantic professor of mathematics Klec, that goes with them on a school trip, which escalates the conflict between them. Jan wants to escape, but Professor Donat will discourage him. Karel fails the exam of mathematics and decides to commit suicide.

Major Kalas from the Prague criminal intelligence service has been sent to a small town of Dubá in North Bohemia to help with the investigation of the puzzling death of a child. A gypsy boy has been killed three weeks ago and his body found under a rock. As the investigation continues, another dead boy is found. The boy has bled to death after someone cut his artery with a handsaw. Both deaths are obviously the work of a murderer - a perverted pedophile, sadist who gets sexual satisfaction from the sight of a young boy's blood.

The border must be guarded against insidious intruders, of that the brave border guard has no doubt. He takes in a shot dog, gains its trust, and eventually, thanks to it, catches an enemy agent who wanted to disrupt the peaceful life of our progressive people.

An original TV adaptation of a play about human solidarity. The story of a man who, feeling guilty for the death of his son, retreats into isolation for several years, but an unexpected situation forces him to return to active life. This television play, which breaks with convention, is a direct attack on the established routine. The author makes maximum use of visual expression and, with its help, develops the retrospective plot, the passage of time, and its impact on the present in a concise and even suggestive manner.

A wonderful fairytale about looking for love, defeating evil and learning some valuable moral lessons on the way. The story begins with the young Prince Velen, who is left in charge of the castle and his three sisters. During the night he has a visitation and before he knows it, all his sisters are married off and gone away, and himself falls in love with beautiful Večernice. Now he is faced with the King's wraths and charged with a quest. The journey, however, hides obstacles and danger; not only treacherous merchants and robbers, but also a evil wizard Mrakomor...

Factory owner Pardon, meets Olga, daughter of clairvoyant Stefanie Lesczynska at a ball. Their brief acquaintance is interrupted when Olga and her mother have to leave. Fifi Hrazánková has her sights set on the elligible Pardon. Pardon asks his Uncle Cyril Ponděliček if the girl could take over his position at work so that she may be dissuaded of her amorous intentions. Fifi seduces Pondělíček. In the meantime, Pardon meets Olga and Stefanie again by chance and offers them a place to stay at Ponděliček’s while Pondělíček passes himself off as Pardon.

Worker Šebesta does not rejoice with the others in the May Day parade, as his boots are weighing him down. The following working day does not bring him a good mood either. At a plant-wide meeting, he comes into conflict with the young striker Brejcha from the United Engineering Works. He demands an increase in the production of heating elements so that the new hall can be completed before the deadline. The workers react to his passionate speech about the improvement efforts with distrust and, with a bit of mockery, challenge him to prove his words with action in their plant...

During the day, Cinderella's face is covered in soot, but at night she transforms into a fairy-tale beautiful princess in a ball gown made of magic nuts. The handsome prince falls in love with Cinderella, but all he has left in his hands is the lost slipper...

Maria, an inn keeper, is always a bride but never a wife. She meets newcomer Pierre, who disturbs the peace of the small village and teaches the locals how to enjoy life. E. Havetta's debut was inspired by naïve art, French impressionism, silent slap-stick and Western Slovakian folk traditions.

Frank visits his friend Josef, who introduces him to his pedigree rabbits and his wife Mary. Frank is more interested in the slightly unsettling fact that Josef and Mary's garden fence is entirely made up of living people holding hands.

In 363, somewhere in Mesopotamia, on a campaign against the Persians, the emperor Julian, who had succeeded Constantine after his victory over Gaul, was going through a personal crisis. He sees that the new philosophical trend, Christianity, is as cruel and implacable as the old paganism, and so he returns to the ancient philosophers. He knows that, as a potentate, he is surrounded by a pack of careerists who are all about loot, and in the face of an insidious external enemy. But his future fate is in their hands...

A mail truck is robbed near the small town of Kostelec, during which the perpetrators steal CZK 2.5 million. The local police fail to solve the case. After some time, a young and capable lieutenant Charvát arrives from the Prague CID. While he is getting acquainted with the circumstances of the case and the evidence found, he makes friends with the handsome Květa, the daughter of the hostel manager Weisse. The complicated relationship that develops between the two lovers is in no way comparable to the complexity of the criminal case that brought Charvat to Kostelec. Things get even more complicated when someone murders Malásek, a local brawler and drunkard, with a shotgun. He is actually Květa's husband. And his death, according to Charvat, is connected to the mail robbery...

Two people scarred by a wartime past meet again years later during an archaeological dig. But the silent, inaccessible man in particular is reluctant to admit to anyone his harrowing experiences in a Nazi concentration camp, where he was the subject of horrific medical experiments.

An ambitious and selfish lawyer confesses to the murder of his first wife. Some of the scenes were filmed in the last weeks of the war.

Recruitment film for general training sections of competitive gymnastics units. It shows the importance of regular exercise for recharging one's batteries so that exercisers can return to work with a clear mind.

Mr. Ctibor once worked as a hotel valet, and although he is retired, he is still eager to prove that he is needed. He thinks he has once again been given the opportunity to intervene in the interests of both the guest and the hotel's reputation, as he wants to prevent the reported suicide of one of the guests. However, the mix-up of room numbers is fatal not only for old Ctibor, but also for the guest in room 32. Ctibor's efforts prove futile, because he mixed up the room numbers and protected someone who didn't need it at all...

Josef Lachman, once a security officer, serves twelve years for aiding an SS fugitive’s escape. Upon release, he works as a driver on a dam project, hunting buried English pounds Meyer told him about. With miner Rokos’s help, he retrieves the cash and hides it with his daughter Eva, but she spends some at Tuzex, Rokos blackmails him, and they discover the notes are WWII forgeries.

The film, in individual episodes, captures the fate of Bedřich Smetana from 1856 until the end of his life, from his young years until the moment when, exhausted by human and artistic hardship, he sees the fulfillment of his great dream, the opening of the National Theatre.

A young man from a poor proletarian family successfully graduates from university, meets a girl who grew up in an orphanage - and surprises his surroundings, greedy relatives and a friend from a rich bourgeois family, by refusing any benefits. He regularly visits his parents to help them build their house, trying to act honestly at all times.

While street photographers Máček and Kalabis are vainly offering their services to passersby, a pair of cronies rob a jewelry store almost right in front of their eyes. Kalabis accidentally manages to photograph one of the robbers. Coincidentally, the brutal thug is indistinguishable from the notorious bookseller Karel Pelikán. Hard times await him: the police, led by the experienced district inspector Moudřý, are interested in him, as well as a gang of criminals who accidentally slipped Karl a ticket from the train station locker where they hid the loot. The only ones who trust Karl are his good-natured aunt Klára and his girlfriend in love, Jarmila...

Emperor Francis Joseph I is about to arrive in Prague, and among those who came to Stromovka to welcome him is Veronika Pavlitová. She wants to submit a request for clemency for her imprisoned father to the emperor, because she is barely able to support herself and her siblings on the meager salary of a seamstress. By chance, the girl meets Božena Němcová, whom she admires immensely. She becomes her friend and confidant for a while. However, police director Paümann, who has been following Božena Němcová for a long time, takes advantage of the naivety of the young girl. Veronika, in her simple-mindedness, tells him many things. Only later will she understand how she was abused.

Children's film about a young boy who moves from the city to the country. At first he finds it difficult to make friends, until others discovers his gift with electronics.

A little boy, named Prdelka, traveled with his father from Prague to the country during the Second World War. There, the boy became friends with a local fisherman and learned to catch the golden eels. Eventually, his father and mother were arrested by the Nazis and the boy stayed with the fisherman.

Dvořák's well-known composition reappears again and again in the serious moments of the lives of the father and son Hupeks - talented non-professional musicians for whom music gives them the opportunity to rise above difficulties and problems...

While Kendy returns to his hometown as an assistant director to film a thirteen-part series with a television crew, Štěpán Šafránek, equipped with his mother's advice after graduation, takes up his first position - as an intern at the local hospital. However, his inadaptability to local conditions and his sense of ethics in his chosen profession do not suit his other established colleagues. While they are amused by his zeal and responsibility, Štěpán has increasing problems with his superiors, until he is finally transferred to the position of rural district doctor, which everyone rejects. In Bezdíkov, however, he meets a new, perhaps permanent and reciprocated love, with whom he eventually decides to live and work in northern Bohemia.

The gamekeeper Straka lives by himself in the Bohemian forest hill. He has quarreled with his only son. He cannot come to terms with the fact that his son has abandoned his beloved forests and settled in a town. He has never even met his grandson Vasek. Following an illness, however, little Vasek needs some country air, and so one day his mother Jarmila delivers him to her father-in-law's cottage. At first Straka is angry, but Vasek is an unaffected lad and throws himself with verve into all the little adventures that the forest provides.

In December 1437, Emperor Sigismund, King of Bohemia and Hungary, returns from Prague to Hungary. Due to a prolonged illness, he stops with his entourage at Znojmo Castle. The Emperor's wife Barbora, daughter Elizabeth and her husband, Duke Albrecht of Habsburg, Supreme Chancellor Kašpar Šlik, bishop, doctors, but also a former supporter of the Hussite movement, Master Křišťan of Prachatice, all expect the Emperor's death. Family members and even the Supreme Chancellor are considering how to obtain the Czech crown for themselves. The Emperor is already dictating a will, but has not yet sealed it with a seal. He waits and takes stock of his reign. Although he defends himself, he is constantly haunted by memories of the Hussite revolutionary movement, which he so cruelly suppressed, and of Hus, for whose death he was responsible.

Mrs. Piskořová, co-owner of a debt-ridden boarding house, forces her daughter Klára to marry a wealthy elderly architect, Kacík, who has recently separated from his wife. However, Klára is in love with the waiter Prokop, who she does not know is actually a mining engineer. No one suspects that Klára's land, considered worthless, contains a coal deposit...

Frona Filípková, out of a desire for a better life, married Floriš Zobač on the land. However, the ownership of the land has affected both her husband and her father-in-law, who, out of hatred, intrigue against the emerging agricultural cooperative and against each other, so Frona looks for a way to free herself.

Episodic film consisting of three satirical shorts ('Smutný káder', 'Typický prípad' and 'Vel'korysá kampaň') comically exposing the shortcomings of society. In the interval between each short, a committee recognising themselves in the characters on screen, voice their approval or disapproval of each film.