Discoveries from Czechoslovakia World Cinema

A story inspired by true events, the fate of a multiple juvenile murderer, takes place in an apprentice boarding school. "A series of sexual murders! A real case that could happen again at any time."

The life story of a prominent Slovak scientist, soldier, diplomat and politician who contributed to the creation of conditions for the formation of an independent Czechoslovakia. He died in a plane crash on May 4, 1919.

Although the title would suggest it, this film has nothing to do with fairy tales at all: it takes place in the North Moravian border region just after the end of the Second War. It presents a fragmented mosaic of the fates of many people, returnees and immigrants, who tried to start a new life and believed in a happier tomorrow. Although the director Antonín Kachlík tried to give the story a certain credibility, he submits to the ideological demands of the 1980s. North Moravian borderlands in the first post-war year: a disparate and fragmented sequence of episodes depicts the individual fates of returnees and new immigrants. Another title that perhaps did not even need to be created.

Small Yozko, who lives with his mother, dreams of a real father, whose ideal is embodied in a tractor motorcyclist on Formula nickname. However, his mother perceives cheerful cool formula, finding it, like many villagers, frivolous. Friendship Formula fills the boy his father's absence, and Yozko increasingly tied to his friend. Suddenly received a telegram from the actual Yozko father, his mother will have to take a difficult decision, but life itself makes adjustments ...

Innovator Ludvík Zach is in love with his technical data and improvement proposals and does not believe that women could be able to understand these problems. However, on his way back from a conference, he meets Jarmila, an electromechanic, and arranges a meeting with her. He would prefer to talk to her about technology, but he discovers that Jarmila is more interested in poetry and music...

Film adaptation of Rudolf Jašík's novel of the same name. The plot of the film is situated in the forties of our century, in the first years of the Second World War. It captures the political and social atmosphere of one of the Slovak towns that lives seemingly in the lee, far from the world and war. Well, appearances are deceiving. Beneath the surface of peaceful, everyday life, a tragic process is taking place, accelerating people's destinies, the disintegration of their characters, but also the maturing of their relationships. The film is the story of Eva and Igor, their love, violently interrupted by political events. In this era of personal and social tragedies, children become adults almost overnight, honest people become victims, and mentally ill people become murderers. The film about the fates of Eva and Igor, the Jewish cartmen Samko and Maxi, and the careerist Flórik presents a believable, convincing picture of the era marked by the expansion of fascism.

Slovak partisans, bravely fighting against Nazi superiority, would never have succeeded to such an extent if they had not been supported by the villagers. Despite the threat of repression, it is the villagers who care for the wounded, hide them, and behave conscientiously. Although the film was made in the late 1960s, it fully adopts the patterns of partisan stories, perhaps the only thing it can be credited with is a more developed sense of authenticity in the story, characters, and setting.

The distressing fate of the Czech great Jan Amos Komenský, forced to leave his homeland after the White Mountain disaster. It depicts his encounters with various European personalities of the 17th century - the Queen of Sweden, artists and scientists. It emphasises the hero's nobility, but also his inner resilience, which allowed him to overcome many personal and professional tragedies. The parable of The Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart becomes part of the story. However, Comenius's concept is sculpturally lifeless and, in particular, the religious dimension is "erased" from it. The simplistic biography therefore does not avoid schoolboyish dryness.

Criminals have their hands full: first a shoplifting, soon the murder of a young driver. Do these crimes have anything in common? But the attempt to create a suspenseful story is broken by its unimaginative nature.

Six-year-old Anička Čejková has moved with her parents from the village to a new housing estate in Prague. For now, she and her father are alone, but her mother is due to return from the hospital soon with her newborn Ondřej. Anička gets lost during her first walk around the neighborhood, but a nice young woman helps her. She is teacher Řeháková, in whose class 1. And soon Anička will start. The first-graders like the school, and when Anička confides in them that her mother will be back soon, they decide to give her a festive welcome.

A first part of a funny adventures of six years old Lucie and her two magic dolls.

The son of a charcoal burner was once prophesied as a child to marry the daughter of a king. The king tries to prevent this by all means.

Lying in the construction industry used to be a criminal offence, but skilful people could do a lot of things. This somewhat embarrassing tragicomedy convinces us that even builders should be honest. The protagonist here is a moral designer who occasionally drops in to sing to enjoy something other than work.

A fairy tale about the brave Bohdana, who underwent the most difficult trials to free her seven brothers from a curse that turned them into ravens.

The sad hero of the story, Petr, an ordinary lawyer in a construction company, is crowded into a small apartment in Žižkov with his wife and grandparents, desperately struggling with the lack of money. One day he offers an old man a seat on a crowded trolley bus and is generously rewarded for his good deed, for the unknown old man is a fabulous grandfather. He gives Peter a magic bell and the opportunity to make three wishes, but the first two slip through his fingers. For the third, the astonished man must take time to think...

A fairy tale about the brave Bohdana, who underwent the most difficult trials to free her seven brothers from a curse that turned them into ravens.

The sad hero of the story, Petr, an ordinary lawyer in a construction company, is crowded into a small apartment in Žižkov with his wife and grandparents, desperately struggling with the lack of money. One day he offers an old man a seat on a crowded trolley bus and is generously rewarded for his good deed, for the unknown old man is a fabulous grandfather. He gives Peter a magic bell and the opportunity to make three wishes, but the first two slip through his fingers. For the third, the astonished man must take time to think...

An interesting look at love destroyed by the demon of drugs, which uses opera singing instead of spoken word. A story about the relationship of two young people and drug addiction.

A baleful limping man walks through Prague. He is Asmodeus (Juraj Herz), the fiend of lustfulness, entertaining himself by putting together by magic couples of lovers. He only fails at the swimming pool. Zuzana (Jana Sulcová), the good-looking blonde, ignores the men whom the devil foists off onto her. She loves Honza (Václav Neckár) and the boy shares her feelings. The fiend is annoyed by the couple and tries to provoke a row. He sends heavy rain to force them into a hotel and then warns Zuzana's father by phone, but the young lovers manage to get out in time. Then the obstinate Asmodeus takes Honza in his sleep to the Institute for Emotional Disorders, where he shows him the ugly sides of love - hysteria, voyeurism, fetishism, suicide attempts...

A pair of circus clowns, played by Vlasta Burian and Jaroslav Marvan, take in an abandoned child and care for them even when they have to make a living as street musicians. The grateful foundling loves his adoptive parents even in adulthood, when he struggles with both love and stolen loot that accidentally falls into their laps. However, the result is only a crudely sentimental comedy that is considered one of the weakest works of the king of comedians, although he also participated in the direction.

Two happily married couple, Michal and Blanka, experience a regrettable misunderstanding: the wife leaves home with their young son, but unfortunately her husband does not find the explanatory letter. Normally, he would wait for the matter to resolve itself, as he does not believe that his wife would just leave him, but he is under a lot of pressure: from his own parents, his neighbor, his mother-in-law, and his "good friends." They all advise him that the only solution is an immediate divorce. After a week, everything is explained, Michal finds Blanka's note and realizes how little he trusted Blanka and how easily he believed others...

A documentary about the 11th All-Sokol Rally in Prague in 1948, focusing in the first part on performances by schoolchildren, youth days, and their parade.

On the holidays, ten years old Adam and his little sister Otka, four years junior to him, travel from a village Vykán to their aunt to Prague. Their parents left for Hungary to the world championship in ploughing. The children have the address but they do not know the way to the Northern Town. They set out for a place on foot, across the historical parts of the town.

Blazenka likes to imagine she is on a desolate island and has to find a way how to survive. After the death of her mother she stays together with her baby brother and has to take care of the family. In this difficult situation, she plays this role-game that helps her to deal with the sudden loss of her mother.

Little Vendulka receives a birthday gift of a seemingly innocuous children's book. Little she knows that the book is actually a portal into the surreal world of nursery rhymes and Josef Lada's paintings.

Vladimír Olmer is a student at the Faculty of Medicine. His father, a famous Prague surgeon, is rightly proud of him. One day, Vladimír accidentally meets his former classmate Emil Prokeš. He introduces him to his frivolous friends, who only care about how to earn money for an idle life without any effort. The trusting Vladimír takes a liking to his new friends, especially when the beautiful Helena shows interest in him. Soon, parties with alcohol are more important to Vladimír than his studies. Mirek, his only real friend, warns him in vain. His frivolous life ends with a fateful party at which Emil is shot. The case cannot be covered up, the security services get involved, and Vladimír is expelled from the faculty for a year.

Car transport of the locomotive is difficult, as the cargo is bulky. The three-man crew of the tractor therefore experiences many difficulties on the long journey across Bohemia...

A crime story about Western diplomats in Prague.

Lola Holm, a medical student, is studying for her final exams. She rejects the courtship of psychiatrist Associate Professor Linn. Bank cashier Goll lives extravagantly and his salary is not enough for his excesses. He is in need and has mental problems. He seeks medical help and accidentally meets Lola. At first, she rejects Goll's attentions, but then she can't resist him and becomes his mistress. Goll embezzles money. He is exposed and faces imprisonment. He turns to his uncle for help, but he rejects his request...

A story of two story of two children tossed between their indifferent parents and a progressive boarding school.

In an unusual, apolitical approach, director Jaromil Jires has fashioned a standard drama that features an older lawyer with failing health who goes to practice in the countryside. His series of odd court cases reveals more about the human condition than about law. In one of these litigations a wayward nephew has cheated his elderly aunt out of her savings. In court, the nephew insists the money was a gift, but his aunt explains she only gave him the money as a loan. Although the lawyer technically wins the case, everything of value seems lost in the meantime. His services are paid for in rabbits because the aunt has no currency, and in the end, the nephew cons his aunt into parting with her savings anyway. Other cases expose similar types of petty corruption.

Criminal comedy, a fourth movie from the "Chief" series.

Old farmer Martin Hudec summons his three estranged sons back to their native village to mow a family meadow. As they spend days together, old pains and personality clashes surface…

A lyrical picture of student life. A romantic story of first student love seen through the eyes of an aging writer's memories. In the last years of his life, National Artist Štefan Králík, in addition to his theatrical work, also worked for television. A Trip to Youth takes place in the environment of a current class of high school graduates who have invited a famous writer to a discussion. Shortly before his arrival, however, something happens that contradicts the majority's opinion about morality. And so the planned official discussion suddenly becomes a sincere, open exchange of views, in which the writer becomes one of the actors in the story. A story that happened to him fifty years ago.

A little girl goes down to the basement cellar to fetch some potatoes, and finds all her hidden fears about the cellar depicted in animated form.

The main characters left their original professions of waiter and taxi driver and rented a thriving disco Brooklyn. However, their peaceful life is disrupted by the con man Kadlec, who has not forgotten that it was they who put him behind bars two years ago. All this time, all he's been thinking about is revenge. The formerly petty crook, with the help of his accomplices, his son-in-law Buresh and fellow prisoner "The Engineer", joins the drug trade and begins his revenge. Michal is arrested for the rape of a girl he has never seen in his life, and it doesn't take much for Tomas to figure out that Kadlec is behind it all. What Tomas also doesn't realise for a long time is that the sympathetic Ivana, who has joined their business and with whom he has fallen in love, also works as a luxury prostitute and was put into the business by Kadlec.

An occupation drama about a group of Czech scientists who, in a remote factory, investigate how to produce the vital penicillin as easily as possible - but for a long time they have been unable to find the only right mould to use as a base.

A war drama about the anti-Nazi resistance in the early spring of the last year of the war. German villains are furiously searching for their opponents, threatening the villagers who helped a downed pilot sent from England. But suspicions are also growing in the Czech environment, as someone has stooped to being an informer.

A psychological drama exploring the notion of the doctor as a moral authority, who within the framework of their everyday work must face questions of life and death. The film is adapted from a novel by Valja Stýblová, in which the author draws upon her personal experiences as a former neurosurgeon. The protagonist of this drama is an ageing professor, based at a Prague neurological clinic, who is haunted by issues concerning his own principles and values, and also by the case of a young patient, Víťa, afflicted with an inoperable tumour.

Two families live in a weaver's cottage - the Menecs and the Hroms. The women are pretty from the start. Musicians come, inviting fellow weavers who play in Menec's band to the May Day festival. Wanderers wander through the region, encountering a procession on their way. The police disperse it, so the men, who have various professions, join the wanderers. They wander around the world until they reach a tavern, where they get food and a bed. An old spinning wheeler composes a song at the request of one wanderer, inviting everyone to a "wanderer's convention". And so they get together and play together...

It is 1955 and the government in Czechoslovakia has declared an amnesty for post-war emigrants. Many of them returned to their families, only young Pavel Kocián's single mother waits in vain for him. Despite her protests, Tomáš Stach, an assembler, is accommodated in her flat as a lodger. Until recently, his fiancée Jana was also waiting for Pavel's return, but she has given up hope and visits Mrs Kocián only out of pity. One evening, an unknown man who introduces himself as Jonáš and claims to know Pavel visits her.

The bridegroom Jan Kaspar is an officer in the Klement Gottwald's Nová Hut rolling-mill. After bidding farewell to his freedom, he accidentally takes a sip from the bottle of tetrachlore which he stores at home. He disregards the dizziness, but the next day, he faints in the factory and has a brain concussion. During her regular tests, doctor Dudková is shocked by a high percentage of residual nitrogen found in Kaspar's blood. Doctor Bohácek, with whom Dudková consults, thinks that it is a liver disease and informs the head physician Filip. The doctors know nothing about tetrachlore and are in the dark about the case. Despite that, they immediately start to fight for Kaspar's life and their struggle consequently affects their personal lives.

The world is made up of yellow people, who turn green if they accept a bribe. As the world becomes increasingly full of green people, everyone turns their attention towards the one hat shop girl who refuses to be corrupted.