Discoveries from Czechoslovakia World Cinema

This comedy is inspired by the American movies of adventure about the Indians and detectives, chase and shooting.

A film about Slovak icons painted in the period of the late 15th to the early 19th centuries, when original Byzantine icon was ending in Slovak folk art.

1975 Czech experimental short by Petr Skala

1974 Czech experimental short by Petr Skala

A humorous modern fairy tale for adults about the life of devils. This is the story of a young couple in love: two devils named Artur and Blanka. Happiness for the young devil couple is disturbed and eventually destroyed by Artur's longing to keep up with others.

Based on Ota Pavel’s collection, married couple moves with three of their sons to a village near river Berounka for a summer vacation. The movie is set in Czechoslovakia during Holocaust.

A building facade through the ages, observed by an old man.

A commercial promoting products by the Schicht company – the soaking detergent The Housewife's Praise [Chvála hospodyňky] and Schichtal washing powder. Babies cry in a pram. Another baby rises up from a nearby pram, pulls off their dirty diapers and sets off for a ride through the streets in its own vehicle. It first snatches dirty laundry from the gossiping housewives and the curtains from the open windows, rushing with the armful of laundry to a billboard, which displays Schicht's washing and soaking detergents. There, it uses the help of a commercial mascot to demonstrate how to soak laundry in The Housewife's Praise and how to wash it in Schichtal powder. The commercial for the Czechoslovak-based Schicht company (Jiří Schicht a. s.) was filmed abroad.

A story about children's fantasy, intended for a child audience. About the search for happiness, which is personified by a blue bird that makes sad people laugh.

An authentic “documentary of the heroic struggle of the Slovak nation against German domination”, whose materials were recycled by all of the later films about the Uprising.

A portrait of the (current day) University Library in Bratislava as both a historical stand and a generator of Slovak scholarship.

A documentary poetic composition about the hopes of farmers for a better life.

A documentary produced for the Czechoslovak army depicting a military project in which troops moved a Slovak mountain village to make room for a military training camp.

A documentary look at homosexuality in Czechoslovakia, a country just beginning to understand that an estimated 750,000 of its citizens are gay and lesbian. Through incredibly honest interviews with gays, gay right leaders and blatant homophobes, the director has created a film that captures the innocence of an incipient social movement as well as a chilling look at the culture they are up against.

Documentary film about the use of tractors in Czechoslovak forestry. It shows a forest tractor felling trees, loading logs, hauling and grubbing.

During his wanderings through the countryside, the student Niky meets the actress Eva, a member of a film company who has come to the countryside to film. However, because the director of the company has fallen into the water, the filmmakers, including Eva, are forced to leave early. Out of grief, Niky gets drunk and bathes in the pond. A thief steals his trousers and Niky is forced to go home wearing only his shirt. On the way, he sees a drying cassock on the fence and puts it on...

Orpheus reconsidered, starting from animations of mosaic images. Eventually, there is lava.

A television adaptation of one of the charming fairy tales by poet František Hrubín. Princess Rose falls in love with a peacock so much that her parents fear for her health and chase the bird out of the royal garden. No one suspects that he is an enchanted young man. When he appears to the princess in a dream as the Peacock King and tells her that they can meet if he crosses the sea and endures the mountains, Rose does not hesitate for a moment. Difficult trials await her, but in the end she stands up to them well and becomes the Peacock King's wife.

Documentary portrait of the life of circus artists during their winter break.

In a cafe, people talk, their words become expresively-shaped balloons. An older waiter tries to connect with a young woman who's reading. She brushes him off, but gets into an animated and romantic conversation with a young man. A dog goes from table to table drinking beer and wine when people aren't looking. Older men talk about sexual conquests until one of their wives interrupts them. The young couple argues; he starts to leave, she pleads, he leaves anyway. The waiter tries to help. Old guys talk until they nod off. Women chat. Later, as the waiter cleans up, the finds the young woman's book. He sighs, the dog sleeps it off.

A sculptor, torn between self-talk and the desire to find the statue within the stone, chips away at its raw surface, riding an emotional rollercoaster. Does he possess the Michelangelo-like talent for such an act of liberation?

A commercial promoting footwear from the Krása [Beauty] Prague company. A traveller wearing enormous shoes stands amidst barefoot blacks in Africa. A lion, feared by everyone, runs up and the native hunters try to kill or at least chase it away with their primitive weapons. The beast, however, keeps swallowing one after another. It only spares the traveller because he is wearing Krasa shoes. The footage then displays the text "I'll spare you, bro, if you wear Krása shoes!" Despite all attempts, the researchers did not succeed in finding the title, year of production and the producer of the film. The film is incomplete and it was acquired from the Krása family archives.