Discoveries from Czechoslovakia World Cinema

Zofie and Dominika, two girls of very different temperaments, become friends during hop-picking volunteer work in the summer. Zofie (Jaroslava Schallerová) is serious to the point of reticence and she is delighted with her friendship with Dominika. For the self-assured and superficial Dominika (Irena Svárová) the whole thing is just a momentary whim. When she leaves the work camp before everybody else, she doesn't even say goodbye to Zofie. The two girls meet again after the holidays as first-year students at medical school, and become close again during the nursing techniques class.

People are afraid of the usurer Chazaj and are convinced that he is the bearer of evil. One day Chazaj pays a visit to the poor artist Simon Jordán and asks him to paint his portrait. Simon agrees but as he progresses with the work his mind conjures up terrible thoughts and in the end he commits suicide. The portrait looks lifelike and Chazaj is content with the results. After Chazaj's death the picture changes hands and brings misfortune to all who own it. The last victim is the young painter Roman who buys Chazaj's portrait in a bazaar. He finds a treasure in the frame and begins to live well off it. The comfortable life suits him so well that he rejects his original artistic aims and becomes a painter of fashionable kitsch.

In WWII, Czechoslovakia split into the Slovak State and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Former pilot Viktor Lesa works for the Slovak Railway Mail and often comes to the border town of Ludendorf, the former Czech town of Bfeclav. In order to impress a young female colleague, he redirects an important package. The Gestapo shows up in the town and Lesa together with a Jewish clerk, Tichacek, have to run for their lives . They ride a cargo train to Slovakia and they decide to escape to Hungary by crossing the Danube.

A mix-up of names and people causes initial confusion with the moving of a very bulky musical instrument, which – together with the recently broken elevator – provokes the residents of an ordinary apartment building to unprecedented activity. It gives the young people an opportunity to make a postponed date, it teaches a joker a lesson, it gives quarrelsome neighbors an excuse to unleash passionate exchanges of opinions... Only Mrs. Careful and her charming Chikita cause trouble and grief – both lose their grooms in their own way.

While parents help blacks in Africa, their children learn to be independent. The youngest is left in the care of the eldest. But who has to listen to whom is a big question, it is not clear who will screw up more. And when the parents come back, the grandchildren will follow.

Pavel Hora offers his friend Jiří Pulpán a place to live. When they get home, they find out that the landlord has evicted Pavel to the yard because he found a love letter from his daughter Zuzanka. So the two men arrange an apartment in the yard. When the landlord catches Jiří with his other daughter Pepička, he sends both daughters to his brother Sylvester on the farm.

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 document on a new method of treating scarlet fever with penicillin.

The first film treatment of the fate of the good soldier Švejk, a dog dealer from Prague, who is arrested after the Sarajevo assassination, psychiatrically examined and later called up to c. and k. army to fight for the emperor lord.

Widowed yeoman Tuma and his household are on their way to help the town of Kourim, which is under attack by the papist troops. His son Ondra is secretly following his father. Miksík the castellan, who is responsible for Ondra, finds himself forced to set off after the boy. They are both captured by soldiers from Kutná Hora. Miksík sacrifices himself to give Ondra a chance to flee. On the way, Ondra runs into the orphan Sulík. The two boys become friends and begin to wander together.

A young Czech couple are terrorized by their funny family.

Working on the hops fields gathering hops for beer, Filip catches a glimpse of fellow worker/comrade Hanka and falls for her. Trying to keep their love secret from the field owners,fellow worker Honza becomes jealous of Filip having a romance with Hanka, which leads to Honza deciding that he will feed the hop field owners Hanka and Filip's secret romantic hops.

Kind and decent professor Artur Čejka is about to marry his fiancée Helena Frýdlová. On the eve of the wedding, he comes across the unfortunate actress Káťa Holanová on the riverbank, who has been unsuccessfully looking for an engagement for a long time and wants to take her own life out of desperation. Čejka prevents her from committing suicide and helps her. He meets the girl again on the train when he and Helena are going on their honeymoon...

Josef Houbička, the owner of the U pěti veverek apartment building in Malostran, is a kind and forgiving good man who allows himself to be ruthlessly oppressed by his proud wife, Filoména, and secretly fixes her problems with the tenants. He lends rent money to two poor painters and bribes offended maids just to keep the house quiet. He would like to restore the old soap factory in the house, but Filoména promotes more profitable garages. And since neither of them wants to back down, Houbička eventually leaves the house after one of the arguments. He makes friends with the innkeeper Pulec, who runs the not-so-prosperous inn At the Leaky Jug...

Alois, manager of a remote mountain inn, loses his maid when she can’t stand his oversized Saint Bernard, Bohouš. When a ravenous guest arrives, Alois makes a wager: if the guest can out-eat Bohouš in one sitting, they earn a free week’s stay; if not, they must serve as the inn’s maid for a week.

The film is based on the memoirs of partisan commander Peter Kružliak. Lieutenant Peter Kubiš is ordered to move with his unit to the mountains after the fall of Banská Bystrica, where he is to receive further orders. No one is waiting, on the contrary, civilian refugees from Banská Bystrica are also entrusted to his protection. In addition, the headquarters sends him to "take care" of captured German soldiers. A serious dispute arises over whether to liquidate the prisoners or not. The final decision must be made and enforced by Lieutenant Kubiš - he refuses to carry out the sentence without a decision from a field court. Kubiš sends the captured Germans - hostages to Banská Bystrica to guarantee the safe return of the civilian population to the city.

A documentary depicting the Czechoslovak army's border patrol.

A romantic fairy tale about a poor painter, Jakub, who visits a sad kingdom where no one is allowed to laugh. But Jakub doesn't like that at all. Will he be able to change the sad kingdom into a happy one?

Majka "Chatterbox" is a girl entering adolescence. She was born with a minor disability. While her mother keeps scolding her for the way she walks, her classmates mock her and call her a "duck". Along an innocent first love affair and a secret friendship, she receives little understanding from her parents and lots of malice from her schoolmates. Majka finds refuge with her grandmother and in her own fantasy world.

Little Peter goes to his grandparents' house for the holidays, but he forgets to take his storybook with him.

A stories about friendship and love, children and parents, students and teachers - all from one regular Czech school during the eighties.

Restorer Rauch, who lives in an unsettled relationship with his wife, is assigned to appraise a rare collection of antiques. When he is supposed to take the items to the commission, his wife borrows a car and secretly drives off with her lover to a cottage. During the trip, they are both shot. The investigation initially leans towards a love motive, but Rauch claims that the collection included a rare goblet with rubies, which was of immense value. And the goblet has disappeared...

A satirical military "Fashion Show" instructing Czechoslovak soldiers how and how not to dress.

A group of boys are spending summer riding their bikes across the city but suddenly they are forced to fight a group of thieves.

The International Festival of Magicians in Karlovy Vary: one of the performances is stylized as a memory of the eskamotero Vili Brod, who also performed in Karlovy Vary in the 1930s. Brod's story is ingeniously supplemented with excerpts from documentary and feature films with Karlovy Vary themes...

Kamil and Vlasta are a married couple living apart for work. When Vlasta stops in Prague to surprise him, she finds him “away” and asks his friend Pepek for help. Ignoring Pepek’s excuse, she heads to a nightclub—only to encounter Kamil with his mistress. News of Vlasta’s visit forces Kamil into a charade: he returns home to her empty-handed, then avoids her until morning at the station, where a mysterious package brings his clandestine night to a close.