Discoveries from Czechoslovakia World Cinema

Within the cultural policy framework of the 1950s, Mikoláš Aleš was, in terms of fine art, equivalent to Bedřich Smetana in music and Alois Jirásek in history and literature. This biopic presents Aleš as an artist of a devoted to his nation and its folk traditions. The movie depicts the most important events of the celebration of “Aleš’s Year” (in honour of the hundredth anniversary of Aleš’s birth), which was conceptually prepared first and foremost by the then education minister Zdeněk Nejedlý, who was also a crucial figure in terms of cultural policy.

Document about the progress and winners of the Youth Creativity Competition organized in 1949 by the Czechoslovak Youth Association.

A flock of storks drop off newborns to families made out of yarn.

The adventures of a rag doll who was excluded from the group of toys because of his differences.

One of a trilogy of animated shorts based on Moravian folk ballads.

In 1944, at Himmler's command, a film was shot in Terezín, meant to give the impression that the rumors of extermination camps were enemy propaganda. In the film titled "The Führer Gives a City to the Jews", Terezín was depicted as a town handed over into free Jewish self-administration.

1977 Czech experimental short by Petr Skala

Combining feature-film, documentary, and popular-science elements, this movie outlines the risks of malignant cancer tumours spreading if the symptoms are not discovered in time. It thus popularises oncology clinics and emphasises the need for preventive examinations. It explains the essence and causes of the disease along with treatment options.

This educational film shows how to achieve the highest possible yields in raising cattle and cultivating crops using the Kačice agricultural cooperative as an example. Following the lead of the Soviet Union, the Kačice collective farmers decide to operate in working groups and to evaluate their work using work actual units of labour, thereby becoming a role model for other cooperatives.

Short about the Velvet Revolution.

Documenting what happend on the Velvet Revolution.

Advert promoting vegetable fat Ceres of the Czechoslovak company Schicht, produced by AB Praha. Different types of food participate in a spectacular competition for the first place in disciplines of fatness, nutrition and price. Although everyone tries and has their indisputable qualities, in all disciplines Ceres wins.

A little-known film through which the Soviet propaganda tried to tell the story of Katyn in its favor.

Where there are temptations, there must also be control. Jan Špáta and inspectors from the consumer council of communist Czechoslovakia’s national committees visit butcher shops in Prague 2. However, his film survey does not examine dishonest vendors, but rather the characters of customers, emphasizing the active role of citizens in dealing with dishonesty. Only customers who defend their interests can ensure that the price we pay for our passivity is as low as possible.

While Michal Tučný sings about food and love, endocrinologist Rajko Doleček from the Regional Hospital in Ostrava calculates that disability pensions related to obesity cost as much as the Danube-Oder-Elbe canal or three hundred thousand cars. The final part of this ten-part television counselling series converts human life into numbers and evaluates people as a social product.

A commercial promoting products from the Schicht company - the soap with the deer and the soaking detergent The Housewife's Praise [Chvála hospodyňky]. Hannibal the monkey rides through a virgin forest in his car. He stops at a clearing where he gives the forest inhabitants a lecture about the advantages of the Schicht products, accompanied by filmed illustrations how to wash laundry properly. The commercial for the Czechoslovak-based Schicht company (Jiří Schicht a. s.) was filmed abroad.

A commercial promoting artificial fertilizers. Two neighbours, Moc and Malý [Power and Small], grow potatoes, but their yields are different. The one who only fertilizes his field with manure crops has very tiny potatoes but the potatoes of his neighbour - who uses potash for growing - are beautiful and huge.

A commercial promoting artificial fertilizers. Two farmers, Malý a Moc [Small and Mighty], overlook their beet fields. The beets in the first field are bigger, because farmer Small employs artificial fertilizers. The beets in the field of farmer Mighty are apparently smaller and withering, because he fertilizes his field with manure instead of potash. At night, the hungry beets from his field rise up as soon as they find out why their colleagues from the field of farmer Small are doing so well, and they organize a protest. They sneak into their farmer's dream and start threatening him. The frightened farmer Mighty wakes up from the scream dream and immediately orders artificial fertilizers for his beet field. The Propagafilm Prague company executed a Czech version of the commercial, while the differences between the individual passages of the original, produced by the Svend Nolden Berlin company, and of the extended Czech version are well distinguishable.

A commercial promoting money saving. Felix the Cat paces impatiently back and forth and strenuously contemplates until he finally gets an idea: Work and save! He produces coins from his fur and deposits them in a nearby moneybox. The commercial features a character inspired by the protagonist of the popular American cartoon, Felix the Cat. Another remade and extended version of this commercial promoting money saving is entitled The New Adventure of Felix the Cat (1927, production company Elekta Journal Prague).

A commercial promoting Sana margarine. A painter's hand adds two skinny boys to a painting. The boys have a sausage and a wandering dog steals it from them. In a while, another two younger, but also skinny boys, playing at American Indians, join the chase after the dog, running away with the sausage. The older boys, however, finally pursue the younger boys instead of the dog, who eats the sausage in the meantime. The younger boys run into a factory complex in the Prague neighbourhood of Hlubočepy. A well-nurtured cook welcomes them and feeds the hungry and skinny boys almost to the verge of bursting. When the older pursuers arrive, they are surprised how fast the two younger boys gained weight. The concluding text of the commercial claims: "Every proper boy must feed on margarine."

Under socialism, everyone and everything was expected. However, a few resourceful individuals have always found a shorter way. With its critical attitude to the "economics of scarcity", this film differs significantly from the rest of the work of Helena Rabarová-Slavíková , who primarily devoted herself to children's work and is known especially for her cycle of folklore verses for children Maľovanky - spievanky

A futuristic satire about a proud inventor and his discovery, an umbrella for every situation.

Three little pigs suddenly come into possession of money. One pig spends it on good food, the other on show, and only the third prudently invests it in a solid house. And the voracious wolf is already walking around...

The grotesque adventures of a scarecrow who is mistakenly abducted by visitors from outer space.

A gang of gas-using murderers are on the loose. Can our badminton-playing hero save the day?

The Slovak National Uprising, as the purgatory of a compromised nation in Ján Kadár’s accounting film.

The mole ends up at an abandoned carnival site.

The mole and his friend mouse find a box of matches.

Animated film by Vladimir Lehký.

The little mole finds a transistor set.

Random people in the street as well as well-known personalities answer the question by Olga Sommerova.

A cheerful fairy tale about how honest craftsmanship triumphs over hell... A cheerful fairy tale about the reformation of a lazy princess from an impoverished kingdom, whose extravagance leads her to hell. From there, she must be rescued by the tailor Vojta, with the help and efforts of the reformed Pepina, who has learned to work in the service...

A film by the Czechoslovak Department of Energy on occupational safety in substations and transformers.

Documentary film about the life and work of artistic photographer Martin Martinček (1913-2004).

In 1990, filmmaker Jan Špáta headed to the North Moravian border region to join photographer Jindřich Štreit. His social humanist black-and-white images of the most ordinary life situations were close to his heart and offered themselves as a means of bearing witness to the social and spiritual state of Czech society on the threshold of freedom. "By allowing myself to be carried away by the world of Štreit's photographs, it is, in terms of content, one of my most raw films", Špáta rightly says. Štreit recalls, "I showed him different settings, what he would be interested in, what he would like, and it is true that he had a very easy job in two ways. Firstly, because these people were used to being photographed, and secondly, I chose the most attractive settings and the most attractive people. I knew that they were photogenic and that these were carrying situations".