Discoveries from Czechoslovakia World Cinema

A musical comedy about a date between boy and girl which started badly but continued very unexpectedly...

A retired soldier, Martin, is returning home after twelve years of service. On the way, he stops in a small Wallachian village, which is ruled by a stingy and ruthless fojt with the help of a sycophantic scoundrel and the local priest. Martin witnesses how he takes the only cow from the widower Kryštof and his five children for a few pennies, how he denies payment of the debt to Jura and Juříček, who then force them to work in his forest for free, how he denies his share of the inheritance to his brother Štěpán, who is in love with the charming Anička. Martin does not want to let all this go by so he decides to help the villagers and punish the fojt. Soon, strange things start happening in the village and the fojt is increasingly afraid that the devil is behind everything. In his place, Martin appears with a cunning plan, the main part of which is a recipe for axe soup.

Two Sebechleby musicians, Peter and Jakub, and their guardian Klimo set out in the mid-17th century to rescue the noblewoman Dóciová, abducted by Ottoman raiders into Istanbul. Lacking language skills and guidance, they rely on courage, wit and their newly enchanted instruments to overcome dangers.

A picture of generational confrontations between children and parents. A young and ambitious violin virtuoso, Peter, lives in long-lasting conflicts with his father. Only after his death Peter realizes how much he had been hurting his father. Still, not even the tragedy can make a change in his shallow life in stereotype.

A 1984 Slovak language drama film directed by Martin Tapák.

The story tells of a village girl, falsely accused by her sister-in-law of the murder of her illegitimate child. The unfortunate girl ends up in court, but fortunately her lawyer suspects that passion and hatred rule in this case. Together they search for the child's father, who seduced and abandoned the heroine...

Zdenek Pešánek created the first public kinetic sculpture, for the power station in Prague. This short experimental film focuses on a kinetic sculpture by Zdenek Pešánek. For a period of eight years it issued beams of light from the outside wall of a transformer station at Prague’s power utility before its destruction in 1939. Though genuine, these shots seem abstract to us. They are a rhythmically assembled ode to the light-creating devices and phenomena of electricity. Light arcs, coils, bulbs and various luminous elements support the alternation of positive and negative film images, creating an impressive universe of light and shade. In the 1920s, Pešánek had obtained financial support for his work with electric kinetic light art. In the 1930s, he was the first sculptor to use neon lights. He built several kinetic light pianos, and published a book titled “Kinetismus” in 1941. —http://www.centerforvisualmusic.org

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.

The juxtaposition of animals locked in cages in a zoo and people shackled by the confinement of the city has not lost its impact to this day. The amorous enchantment, passing and bonding of the two protagonists, a young conservationist and a paleontologist, takes place against a backdrop of subtly affected period realities. The debuting filmmakers, screenwriter Jaroslav Vanča and director Václav Křístek, have attempted to spice up the story with the character of a mysterious man who turns out to be the writer of the events just narrated.

A short film by the Czech animator Vaclav Mergl.

A story about three young boys who are best friends and together are trying to fight a poacher in the forest close to their village.

Ximéná and Rodrigo love each other, but in order to remain worthy of each other, they decide to fulfill the command of honor. Don Rodrigo avenges the insult that Ximéná's father caused his father, and Ximéná asks the king to punish Rodrigo. The king forgives Rodrigo-Cid for killing Ximéná's father, Don Gómez, in the name of the honor of his family, because Rodrigo will save the land from the Moorish invasion.

After his retirement, Jozef Rebro, a former chief state clerk, finds himself in a new situation. No longer able to overwork his subordinates, he becomes bored and begins to terrorize his family, his wife and daughter Olga and son František. The domestic tyrant can't stand resistance, he wants to manage and control everything. However, the frost comes on the dog and even the frightened wife rebels against the ribs...

Two stories from the lives of border guards. In the story "The Pursuit", an experienced border guard and his young and inexperienced colleague follow the tracks of ski boots in a snowstorm. The second story, Wandering, is about a frontiersman whose wife wants to go inland with their child.

One busy day for a busy woman: worrying about children, the responsible work of a nurse in the centre and housework. In the evening, her husband is due back after a long time.

He, Doctor of Philosophy Alois Pech, is his mother's impenetrable and unindependent pet who works as a prison librarian. She, Marcela Johnová, is a self-confident, energetic and successful girl from high society. While she lives in the big world, surrounded by luxury and admirers, he lives a quiet, modest life with his caring mother. They are introduced by a completely random night-time phone call made from Marcella's apartment by one of her guests. Although for her the pleasantly clumsy man is primarily an entertaining addition to a life full of pleasures, Alois falls in love with the girl and begins to look for opportunities to meet again.

A story about an everyday life of an inflectional department of Prague hospital.

A young girl walks home at night, not expecting to see a pastry chef on her way.

Set in a village, the story of a simple-minded, not-so-responsible young man who still manages to take care of his younger siblings after their father has left the family. Good thing he could lean on the principles of exemplary socialist morality. Not surprisingly, the attempt to capture something of the mentality and conditions of the contemporary village breaks down into simple, poster-like lessons.

At the end of May 1918, released prisoners return to the Rumburk garrison from Russian captivity, hoping that the war is over for them. The only thing they want is to get their withheld ...

Rock concerts used to be suspicious. They were supposed to attract all sorts of strange individuals who meant no good. In this case, it's a pair of escaped convicts who want to hide in the heat of the concert...

A popular band called Rabaka, portrayed by members of Elán (Jožo Ráž and Jano Baláž), faces internal conflicts leading to their breakup. Set against the backstage of the music scene, the film follows their struggles with fame, personal tensions, and creative differences. After time apart, the former bandmates confront past grievances and rediscover their passion for performance, ultimately deciding to reunite and return to the concert stage.

Three mimes represent beetles in the real world of human habitation, which is proportionally huge for their beetle-like dimensions. They experience an extraordinary adventure of discovering ordinary things in human habitation.

Zdenka Sulanová has grown from a leggy frog into an attractive young lady in the two years since the success of Líza's Flight to Heaven. It is no wonder that Václav Binovec decided to guide her through the further pitfalls of the life of the orphan Líza, who comes to a monastery boarding school to gradually win the heart of a strict teacher, her classmates, and finally the man who caught her eye at first sight. Of course, it will not be easy and Líza will have to shed a few secret tears, show vitality and a willingness to fight for her happiness. Then even the viewers of this typical First Republic girl's romance can conclude with emotion that the world is not so bad after all, when a poor girl can achieve success in it through diligence and hard work.

A rich man can not cheer his daughter Marcelka. He calls overseas doctors and tries to repaint his castle but nothing helps. Only young boy Petrik is able to amuse Marcelka with his artistry.

A holiday story about first tentative love, set in a romantic cottage village on the banks of a river. There, a 15-year-old girl feels lonely and confused, bitterly reliving her hopes and disappointments...

The story tells of a man who is left alone at home by his wife. He must take advantage of his sudden freedom – he goes to a bar and tries to meet a pretty girl. However, two local drunks who pretend to be his former classmates prevent him from getting close to her. They force themselves on him and the man is unable to defend himself. All three end up at his home – with a supply of alcohol and sausages. However, the unexpected visitors become increasingly aggressive and start to demolish the apartment. Who will come to our hero's aid?

In the bleak autumn mountains of the Beskydy Mountains, a dramatic story set in the wartime November 1944 takes place. Seven refugees join forces with partisans, but during a joint sabotage operation - blowing up a bridge - they discover they have a traitor in their midst. Brought to the mountains by a variety of motivations, the men suspect each other while fighting for their lives with an advancing German detachment armed to the teeth...

As Nazi troops prepare to occupy the already truncated Czechoslovak Republic, a small military garrison made up of communists defies orders to abandon their post.

An original television production from the SNP era. The story of two pacifist-minded soldiers who, through their dreams, escape a reality that does not suit them.

The village girl Žofka goes to work in Prague, where she is seduced by the reckless Rudolf Slaba. Rudolf is fired from his job for drunkenness and Žofka leaves him after the birth of her child. On the advice of an old beggar, she starts begging for a living, but is imprisoned, although she is innocent. After her release, she wants to drown herself with the child, but faints and then believes that the child has drowned. Mrs. Robová takes in the poor Žofka. After her death, Žofka inherits the money. With a guilty conscience, she returns to the village of Dubová, where she marries Jan Rokyta. However, the marriage is childless. The son of a landowner, Jaroslav Beneš, meets the charming Jitřenka in Prague. She is expecting a child with Jaroslav, but his parents prevent the wedding. Jaroslav's confidante Žofka learns from Jitřenka's parents that Jitřenka was found in a boat on the river, and recognizes her as her daughter. (Filmový přehled)

The sincere and innocent amorous outburst of a mining apprentice clashes with the insensitive misunderstanding of adults...