Discoveries from Czechoslovakia World Cinema

A satire on modern housing and tiny apartment architecture.

1984 Czech experimental short by Petr Skala

1970 Czech experimental short by Petr Skala

The story of an ethnic German living in the Czech border region of the Orlik mountains in Eastern Bohemia. His life story, recounted in film with humility, faith, and love, becomes a personal view of the history of the 20th century.

A short animated film based on the American folk song about a logger in the habit of stirring his coffee with his thumb.

A paraphrase on the folk tales about the outwitted Death. This one is a story of a folk musician who plays his violin so well that Death lights a new life candle for him.

A commercial promoting the Czech Brouk and Babka department store and its branches in Czech towns Prague, Pilsen, Ostrava and České Budějovice. Felix the Cat sails the sea as a cabin boy, and the boat founders even though Felix and the captain spot the upcoming storm in time. The two survivors are captured by a local tribe of cannibals; they are imprisoned and seem to face death. Yummy Yum, the king of the cannibals, however, has a conceited daughter Ufrfina and decides to reprieve the two captives in order to meet her wishes, as well as the wishes of his subjects - only the men have to buy themselves out by the things from the list submitted by the cannibals. The desperate captives have no idea where to get so many things so fast. A magician hears their weeping. He conjures them two beetles who get them everything the cannibals crave. Felix wonders at this and the beetles confess to owning the Brouk and Babka department stores where everything is available.

Exemplary social care by the state for Slovak workers in a convalescent home, with a beautiful Slovak backdrop.

A look at the series of sacrifices of a man who wants to save up for his object of desire: an automobile.

A meat-eating monarch marries a vegetarian princess.

Ex Libris is a Czechoslovakian Stop-motion animation by Garik Seko. The film consists of books that are animated using stop-motion.

The reason for making this film is clear: it was to cover up Vojtěch Jasný's famous chronicle "All the Good Natives", an account of the tragic consequences of forced collectivisation. The pro-regime director Antonín Kachlík also focuses on the socialisation of the Moravian village, accompanied by mistakes and coercion, but in his optimistic view he emphasises the hopeful prospects leading to a happy future. Although the united village lands were born in pain, they will serve for the benefit of all the working people... As with Jasný, Radek Brzobohatý embodies the stubborn peasant, who is only slowly acknowledging the benefits of communal farming. However, unlike the poetic exuberance and pithiness of Jasný's chronicle, here we encounter a vicious posturing.

The Sisyphus-like story by two co-authors is set in the present. The hero’s boulder is his everyday duties and the need to earn money and look after the family. The dynamic story imitates for instance the rapid pans and tilts of a camera by blurring the picture, the final intensity of changes implicates the stereotypical working routine. Animation on translucent layers alternates with total drawing.

Using footage of exemplary holidaymakers from the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea, this compilation film draws attention to the wide range of leisure options proffered by the Revolutionary Trade Union Movement (Revoluční odborové hnutí – ROH) at home and abroad. Recreation is presented as a “reward for workers” for helping repair war damage and for participating in post-war renewal and construction.

A naked torch bearer repeatedly attempts to deliver the Olympic flame to its destination, but something always goes wrong.

A commercial promoting gas appliances - geysers, kitchen stoves, heaters and others - produced by the Prague Gas Company and, simultaneously, advertising the company's individual branches.

Adventures of a baby in a car factory.

A short animated movie from 1970 depicting a "grotesque image of the eternal longing for adventure and romance".

As the wind blows away the magician's magic top hat, a multitude of hats in various colors, shapes, and materials scatter across the landscape. With the unexpected loss of his hat, the magician finds himself unemployed and eventually joins the circus, while the top hat ends up in a florist's shop. Yet, even there, it continues to produce new hats, reuniting the magician with both his original hat and the florist.

Jan Jedlička has been recording the Maremma landscape for three decades with various artistic means. He has systematically studied the topography of the region from the highest points, the large, simple shapes of hills and plains, the canal systems, the clean lines of the coastline. He observes the migratory fires set by local peasants to burn their fields and grass. The elemental structure of the landscape, the colours and reflection of the water surface emerge in the ever-changing light during the day and the seasons. The sequences and arrangements of the film develop a multi-layered dialogue between the landscape and the abandoned house. In the interior spaces of the house, in the play of light and shadow, from unexpected angles, from spots on the wall or patterns on the tiles, Jedlička reveals motifs that resonate with the physiognomy of the landscape.

A king and his three daughters must contend with the hairy wiles of the "ugly bastard" known as Omnifurous.

Reportage from a competitive fashion show organised in the autumn of 1953, with participation of Czechoslovakia along with Hungary, the GDR, and the USSR. In accordance with the principles of socialist apparel, the film emphasises the presented designs’ practicality and their availability for the general public.