Prince Louis Ottomar Charles XII, born Noble, is very close to his loving mother, Queen Ludmilla. However, Prince Louis is already a bit too old, he is 39 years old. He's afraid of almost everything, doesn't want to get married, and spends most of his life hanging around the sumptuous castle and adjacent fields. The wise King Radomil therefore prepares an unexpected gift for him - the prince wakes up one morning in the forest in ordinary clothes and, accompanied by the rough knight Hudroval, he is to go out into the world to learn what life is all about and perhaps finally grow up. On his great journey of adventure, he will encounter things he has only read about in books. He will meet a powerful wizard, evil witches, a ghost, and the Lady Death herself... and maybe even find the love of his life. What will Mummy say about all this? And will Father King be happy?
After a fictitious marriage with a Russian emigrant, Cellisten Louka, a Czech man, must suddenly take responsibility for her son. However, it’s not long before the communication barrier is broken between the two new family members.
A love story which unfolds over three days and nights on the outskirts of the metropolis. Seventeen-year-old Ema (Dorota Nvotová) breaks up with 'dude' Viktor (Lukás Latinák), has a fling with future pilot Karel (Mário Kubas), and meets a real man (Ondrej Vetchý), a taxi driver without a taxi. In the tangle of relationships, the characters sometimes have an opportunity to share their feelings, but sometimes they simply pass each other by. The story is told through Ema's eyes as she observes the world around her while searching for love, fun, and joy. But she's not the only one looking for happiness, nor the only one who finds it hard to avoid hurting others in the process. Ema's abandoned mother (Jana Hubinská) looks for another chance for love, while Karel's parents try to put long-lost meaning back into their marriage.
Czech literature teacher Josef Tkaloun, who is past retirement age, realises one day that he no longer understands his pupils, and so he quits… dramatically. What he does not predict is that in doing this he will lose his sense of place in society.
Even a strict and not very popular teacher can achieve extraordinary popularity with his pupils. When their favourite teacher breaks his leg just before a bicycle trip, he is replaced by his strict colleague. Although his involuntary charges are not enthusiastic at first, they eventually become convinced that it is not good to immediately reject a person just because one does not get along with him at first...
A TV adaptation of the famous novel in which writer Zikmund Winter depicts the life story of Prague university professor and humanist poet Jan Campanus Vodňanský and his efforts to save the ancient university after the Battle of White Mountain. Campanus gradually loses all his battles. The path of concessions leads to unintentional but tragic guilt when, at Campanus's unwitting instigation, the Jesuits seize the child of the executed Jesenius. The difficult post-White Mountain period in the Czech lands presented Campanus with a dilemma: whether to convert or to keep a clear conscience, a conflict of power and honor so common in our history...
Life of Czechoslovak soldiers in a military unit for the so called "politically unreliable" - the Technical auxiliary battalions, aka "the black barons". Although it might seem like a political satire and it's mostly funny, it shows the reality and the absurdity of military service under the communist regime. Based on a novel by Miloslav Svandrlik.
Slovakia, on the eve of the outbreak of World War II. The family of the young Jewish Martin Friedmann gathers to celebrate his bar mitzvah and make a solemn promise that they will all meet again a year later around the same table; but the storms of war and anti-Semitic fanaticism will lead each of them down very different paths.
Lt. Franta Slama is a top pilot in the Czech Air Force who is assigned to train a promising young flier, Karel Vojtisek, and they soon become friends. When Nazi Germany invades Czechoslovakia in 1939, they both reject the authority of their new leaders and escape to England where they join other Czech exiles in the RAF. While flying a mission over England, Karel crash lands and happens upon the farmhouse of Susan, a young woman whose husband is in the Navy. Karel soon falls head over heels for Susan but, while they enjoy a brief fling, in time Susan decides she prefers the company of the older and more worldly Franta. As Franta and Karel struggle to maintain their friendship despite their romantic rivalry.
Capturing the dark humor of Czech author Michal Viewegh's chronicle of life after the Velvet Revolution, this black comedy chronicles three decades in the life of a small Czech family. While the original novel centered on the protagonist Kvido from his conception through his adulthood, first time director Petr Nikolaev and screenwriter Jan Novak changed the focus to his parents Milena, an extremely self-effacing lawyer who acts on stage in her spare time, and Ales, a rather aimless government worker who tends to drift wherever the wind takes him. The lives of Ales and Milena change dramatically following the Russian invasion of Prague in 1968.
The dark crime comedy is set in the present day. The story is inspired by the two biggest and still unsolved robberies that have taken place in our country in recent years. The main characters are three friends who were dramatically separated by fate years ago. Now they meet again in the backdrop of today's Prague. Why are these modern-day musketeers getting together? To make millions together! The robberies are successful, but what next? How can they enjoy their stolen money without attracting attention? Our three heroes discover that this is much more difficult than they originally thought. And they couldn't do it without the backing of international crime. The film is set in Prague and the attractive exteriors of Sri Lanka and Tunisia.
Joseph K. awakes one morning, to find two strange men in his room, telling him he has been arrested. Joseph is not told what he is charged with, and despite being "arrested," is allowed to remain free and go to work. But despite the strange nature of his arrest, Joseph soon learns that his trial, however odd, is very real, and tries desperately to spare himself from the court's judgement.
In a small kingdom where King William and Queen Olivia are perpetually away, corrupt councilors Ferenc and Lorenc exploit their power by piling on ever-higher taxes, only to have their unjust levies thwarted by the noble robber Karaba, who ambushes the tax collectors and returns the stolen money to the people. After the birth of his daughter Anička, Karaba retires his highwayman’s tools and resumes life as a humble potter, even as the royal couple welcomes a son, Jakub, and the ministers’ greed threatens to draw him back into defending the common folk.
Young Ondra has asthma and so his parents throw away his favourite toy: a musty old stuffed bear named Kooky. That night Ondra dreams that Kooky is determined to find his way back home from the dump. In the boy's fantasy, the bear gets lost in a forest occupied by strange animals and remarkable beings that he never heard of while living on the toy shelf in Ondra's room. And of course even in this small imaginary world, true good exists as does real evil, which Kooky must face up to in order to become a real hero.
Dorota, a bad woman married the miller, out of sheer greed drives him to death. She then took the mill away from his son Peter and threw him out of the hime. Lucifer, who is known to rule in hell, sends out the devil Janek. He is supposed to fetch Dorota because the measure of her earthly sins is overflowing. But the devil himself can not handle this evil woman and flees to the military. There he meets Peter. By joining forces, they finally succeed in transporting the wicked Dorota to hell. Since then hell is hell. But for Peter, who is suddenly in possession of a magic mantle, begins a nice time, because strangely, the prince shows great interest in him.
President Kateřina Čechová, exhausted by the pressures of her first year in office, secretly dons a disguise to slip out of the castle at night and mingle among ordinary citizens. She meets and falls for sculptor Petr, unaware of her true identity, but when her nightly escapades are exposed, she must navigate the fallout and fight for her right to a personal life and love despite her public role.
Dr. Štěpán, dismissed for his outspokenness, returns to his hometown determined not to bend his ethical principles to the ruthless new capitalism surrounding him. When he meets a young woman who may become the meaning of his life, he must confront the tension between his ideals and the demands of a changing world.
Woodcutter Ondra, who for his bold nature is called Nebojsa. He goes into the world to learn fear. During his journey, on which he is accompanied by a cowardly thief Ferka, he can deal with a bunch of bandits, vicious mill, fiery rock and eventually he must confront the evil wizard who swore a beautiful princess. Will Ondra do all his courage and ingenuity to liberate Princess?
The fall from the top to the absolute bottom can be very fast. A renowned physician, also a beloved father and husband, is accused of a serious felony. Innocence is hard to prove, especially when in desperation to try to save oneself, we sacrifice the secrets that should have remained hidden forever.
It is 1883 and Josef Hibes, a social democrat, is organising a strike of textile workers. The main demand is a reduction in working hours...
The film consists of five parts - a live-action framing story and four distinct animated episodes - each by a different creative team and in a different animation style, from Pojar and Koutský’s semi-plastic “Princess Who Never Smiled,” through Žabka’s puppet fable “The Fairy and the Bookkeeper,” Dlouhá and Váša’s paper-cut “Fisherman, His Wife, and the Golden Fish,” to Pixa’s near-future parable “Mr. Vincent”.
A group of children is trying to solve a mystery related to the diamonds smuggling.
Lovers & Murderers is about the ongoing war between those who have and those who want to have what the others have. The have-nots see themselves as poor victims trying to get for themselves what is justly theirs. But when the have-nots become haves, they continue to see themselves as victims of the hordes baying for what is justly theirs, and they have neither the energy nor the security to enjoy what they have obtained. The movie takes place in the microcosm of a small apartment building. The principal goal of the young people who share rooms in the building is to move into their own room and, some day, a real apartment. They scheme to get what they're after: form short-lived alliances, petition, frighten, marry, become pregnant, anything that might work. Lovers & Murderers presents Páral's vision of mankind caught in a cyclical process in which ideology pales before the pettiness, cruelty, and self-justification of human nature.
New husband Adam reluctantly takes a job with state security in a totalitarian country, thus becoming a secret police agent. This "contract with the devil" helps secure a flat for the happy couple, as well as a prosperous future. However, he soon finds out that he too is under surveillance.
Maruska is a blind girl and student at the Conservatory of Music who dreams of love and having a family despite her blindness. Her dream guy has curly blonde hair and blue eyes but she ends up falling in love with the dark eyed, swarthy Marek. Maruska lives with her overly protective grandfather whom is preocupied with his long-lost love. Maruska’s neighbor and best friend is constantly struggling with his headstrong mother as she refuses to accept that her son is gay. She blames everyone else - even her husband - for her son's "deviation." The fate of all main characters is unexpectedly intertwined and told through humorous and touching situations laced with subtle irony and hyperbole. Just as in life, with its funny situations and difficult tests, unexpected revelations and surprising twists, all characters will experience times when they behave blindly and forget to listen to their hearts.
A dramatic action film about stuntmen who perform the most dangerous stunts in the film world. One day, however, one of them is struck by a family tragedy in which his son dies. The man cannot overcome this tragedy and ends up in a psychiatric ward. Will he be able to return with the help of his friends?
Based on the popular television series Okresní přebor. As the title suggests, the film features the legendary figure of licensed coach Josef Hnátek. Since this man appeared in the series only as ashes scattered on the Houslice football field, the filmmakers decided to introduce him to viewers in his living form. The story of the feature film is set during his lifetime and explores the dilemma of a man for whom football is his whole life. Even more than life itself. The title role of the Houslice personality will be played by theater director, artistic director of Prague's Dejvické Theater, and occasional actor Miroslav Krobot.
As the name suggests, the movie is about football. It is not about big league soccer, making huge money. It is about football, which lives just from village fans enthusiasm, from the enthusiasm of fathers and their sons and club officials. And yet on this battlefield, where the pub and silent household alternates, it is often about everything: friends, family, the meaning of life. It is about playing fair, but also about fighting below the belt. It is about winning, but also about falling into the abyss of the league wilderness.
In a deserted clearing, a forest ranger finds the lifeless body of a man. He manages to revive him, but the man remembers nothing. He doesn't know how he got into the forest or why he is covered in blood, and instead of answering questions, he runs away. The ranger sets out after him and gradually discovers that the man is involved in a bloody vendetta, which he may have initiated himself and in which his fourteen-year-old daughter plays an important role.
Josef Loucký is the popular mayor of the village of Sedlčánky and has ambitions to win the prestigious title of Village of the Year. The village already has almost everything it needs to secure victory. Various parodies of a public library, museum, public swimming pool, and ice rink can be found here. The only thing missing for success is a sewage system. The mayor has been promised a subsidy for the construction of a sewage treatment plant if he has the sewers dug across the entire village within two weeks. Thanks to his efforts, however, the village has a completely new road and sidewalks. So there is only one option left. The sewer system will run through the gardens. Everyone agrees with this plan, except for one person, the mayor's father-in-law, Topol.
The TV fairy tale based on a book of tales and legends from Prague's Old Town. Its author, writer E. Petiška, set the story at the end of the 16th century, during the reign of Rudolf II, when the wise and learned Rabbi Löwe, on the orders of heaven, created the Golem, whose task was to help the oppressed in their fight against their enemies...
A fairy tale based on motifs taken from Josephine tales. Like Josef II, the fictitious emperor Maxmilián often disappears from the castle in disguise in order to find out how his vassals live. On one of these 'trips' he meets a drummer returning home from his stint in the army. They live through various adventures together, meeting bandits as well as human foolishness and perfidiousness which almost leads them to the scaffold.
Who among us would not want to find themselves, at least for a short time, in the romantic era of knightly duels, a time when friendship, love, and honor were valued above all else—even life itself? In today's fairy tale, we invite you to step into this era, into a mysterious world of magic and suspense. The young and likable heir to the throne, Prince Kornel, returns from enemy captivity. However, his journey home is full of unexpected twists and turns – both joyful and sad. In the woods, he meets a beautiful stranger whom he cannot forget. Upon his return to the royal castle, he learns that much has changed during his absence. His father has died under mysterious circumstances, and Kornel's cousin now rules the kingdom...
A professor reunites with an old friend who inspires him to return to Czechoslovakia for the first time since he emigrated years ago.
When sisters Jana and Anna meet their half-brother at their father's funeral, the siblings' lives entwine as they navigate relationships and setbacks.
This simple story is the feature debut for well-known Slovak theater and television director Juraj Nvota. Set in a Slovak village at the turn of the last century, the story teems with passion, and repressed and hidden emotion. It delves into the search for identity, investigating both love and hatred, while dramatizing the tragic relationship between an adolescent girl (Tatiana Pauhofová) and her ambitious father (Ondrej Vetchý). Set against the striking though simple backdrop of a picturesque, even idyllic, landscape - one ostensibly cut off from any important historical, political, or social context whatsoever - the arrival of an unwanted individual evokes the onset of a cruel drama.
The nurse Helga meets Baltic nobleman Arno when he's wounded in the Russo-Finnish war. They have a short but passionate affair before Arno is called back to the front and dies. Helga has a daughter, Dorli, as a result of the affair and they have to struggle to survive after the Red Army wins the war.
This story actually happened in the region around the city of Sumperk in Jeseniky Mountains in May 1945. The disappearance of Agnes, the German wife of a Czech forester Jan Olsan is a dark mystery. She is the only one who knows who and for what reason is looking for her. It's the end of the war, times are bad and the Czechs are coming back from the inland to the frontier. The guards are forming and soldiers are coming. Fate brings together the outlaw Jan and his German brother-in-law Jurgen who has just returned from the eastern front line. Both men are looking for exactly the same woman and that is Agnes. But Agnes escaped; she is running away through the deep woods followed by the most powerful man of the county. Running away for what she had witnessed. The fatality of the relationship between Agnes and Jan can only be learned in the mountains on this thorny journey.
Manipulation, coercion, humiliation, aggression. Hidden cameras captured the rough background of the seniors' demonstration events. What really happens on the popular free lunch tours? Practices that give you chills. Lies and deliberate manipulation, the sole purpose of which is to force defenseless old people to buy overpriced goods. Seniors pay exorbitant sums from their meager pensions for often low-quality products. Some of them worry that they will never go to any event again, others can't stand it and go again. What drives them? Curiosity? Loneliness? Or addiction?
The hero of the story is a forty-something intellectual, a sensitive composer of classical music. His exclusive profession, his work, which is actually incomprehensible to those around him, and his deep inner passion set him apart from the conformist milieu. Therefore, he tries to search for the "lark's silence" - a new strength, purity, truth, essence and roots of Czechism. However, on his return from the oppressive, alienated big city to his native village, to his former home, to nature, a deep disillusionment awaits him: he discovers that the once idyllic village has lost not only its face, but also any manifestation of spiritual life in its foolish attempt to resemble the city.
Young Filip is cursed with terrible luck ever since his father dared to outwit Lady Fortune herself, and to make matters worse, Filip falls hopelessly in love with Fortune’s daughter, Hanička. Determined to win her heart and break his family’s jinx, he embarks on a fantastical journey around the world, where an unlikely alliance with a compulsive liar named Kdokoliv (“Anybody”) becomes his only hope in the struggle for Hanička’s love.
Godfather's story is the story of the greatest of Czech post-revolutionary 'entrepreneurs'. His activities often crossed the edge of the law, and his life ended bullet assassin.
Adolescence is always a difficult time; it is doubly so for Gábina. For one thing, she is growing up in the normalization years of the 1970s, and then she also has to face the reality that her father is a well-known actor disavowed by the regime. Although he abandoned the family years before, his existence casts an ominous shadow over the lives of not only Gábina, but also her older sister and mother, who are trying to find a civilized way through the social mire of the times.
Little kids, little worries, big kids, big worries, sighs many a parent often. This is no different for the mother of eighteen-year-old Frantisek, who has just graduated from high school without much glory and is about to start his first job. Fandy is still full of boyish dreams, yearns for a career as a rowing representative, competes with a friend for the favor of an admiring girl and is generally stubbornly opposed to taking life seriously.
It tells the story of a young man who was turned into a donkey by curiosity and a fatal mistake. While the hero despairs and does not know how to return to human form, we can observe through his eyes the society that surrounds him. The television fairy tale of screenwriter Jiří Bednář and director František Filip alternates dramatic tension with comic moments.
The princess, who laughs at the lake lord's feelings because of his non-human appearance, is herself transformed into a living golden statue. The curse can only be broken by the love of a man who loves her just as she is.
The once-prosperous Kingdom of Three Ponds has been laid waste by a curse that stripped its waters of every fish, bringing famine and unrest to the people - and bitter conflict to King Boleslav’s court. As schemers vie for power, most dangerously the trickster Nikdáš with a stolen magical rod, the young fisherman Ludvík emerges as the kingdom’s hope, determined to break the curse, restore the fisheries, and win the heart of Princess Lidunka.
A Czech psychological film about the school of life, its sorrows and beauties. The main character is a young aspiring nurse Marie Sahulová, who, after a trouble in the hospital - she secretly brought a boy to her boarding school - is transferred to a rural health centre, where together with an old doctor and a peculiar nurse she has to travel around twenty-five villages and a number of solitudes in the harsh environment of the neglected villages of the 1950s. The nurse, a wise and experienced woman whom no one calls anything other than "babi", becomes her guide, who introduces her to the practice and the pitfalls of private life in a distinctive way. In the mosaic of everyday worries and more or less serious medical interventions, Marie matures and finds the meaning of her work and life.
Father Viktor, highly capable and successful in his profession, and his son Petr, an equally successful and promising student, suddenly find themselves in an unexpected situation – after the death of their wife and mother, these two exemplary models of the perfect man and student must deal with such a mundane matter as taking care of the household. As capable, intelligent, and successful men, they naturally see no problem with this. Their experienced neighbor Lupínek, a distinguished grandfather with four grandchildren to look after, warns them in vain and offers his help. Male vanity and pride are stronger. As a result, they gradually find themselves in a whirlwind of embarrassments, problems, and disasters that gradually erode their self-confidence and destroy their firm belief in their own perfection. Fortunately, Uncle Artur comes to the rescue.
Told from the perspective of man reflecting on his childhood in Prague in the early years of World War II and the eventual destruction of his family as the Nazis rise to power. The storyline focuses heavily on Jewish-Czech Silberstein family members. Drama was filmed on the real events as a tribute to Mr. Nicholas Winton, the British humanitarian who organized the rescue of 669 children, most of them Jewish, from Czechoslovakia on the eve of the Second World War in an operation later known as the Czech Kindertransport from German-occupied Czechoslovakia and likely death in the Holocaust.
The elements that rule Earth - Air, Fire, Earth and Water - are in their "regular inspection tour". We are following Water, in the form of the Rain Fairy. Traversing the land dressed like a poor woman, she learns that people really have begun focusing mainly on money and that love and goodness are disappearing.
A celebrated theatre director’s perfect life unravels when his wife’s secret lover exposes the hollowness beneath his success, leading to a calm divorce and his isolation in a luxurious but empty villa with his nearly grown daughter. His attempts to fill the void through a high-end escort only delay the real crisis, when he cannot accept his daughter’s first great love.
A story of love, friendship, and solidarity, aspects of life that allows us to live with dignity even at the most difficult of times. Set within the walls of a Communist prison of the 1950s, a tale unfolds of a young couples' fragile love. An angry young man Lubos always felt defiance toward everything around him, and eventually this trait lands him in court. The verdict is clear and the punishment long and hard. But even in prison Lubos is unable to tame his love of jazz or the eternally blazing flame of rebellion he carries inside. There is no place on earth where love cannot grow. Lubos meets Dana in prison. Out of solidarity and support, their fellow prisoners hatch a small rebellion to help them fulfill their love - a love which has appeared in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Tragicomic family film about the world of children heroes - particularly the son of a local communist officer and his friend, a little hostage of the regime, whose parents emigrated to the West, few years before "Prague Spring" and the occupation of Czechoslovakia. Camaraderie, the first big discoveries of love, enemy gang fights and naive ideas are confronted with the reality of adult's world. The film is about the first contacts with bizarre and absurd reality of relationships and attitudes of adults, politics, emigration, but also betrayal and death and about how all those things form and transform the lives of small boys, who are forced to grow up too quickly.
Pedantic policeman Frantisek (Ondrej Vetchý) wants to bring up his three daughters with a firm hand. He would like to see the girls coupled with capable and successful men, but instead they have the talent to find the opposite. Moreover, one of them is constantly trying to get pregnant, second one is only dating exotic fools and the third one is expecting a baby without knowing who is the father. Frantisek and his wife (Simona Stasová) always spend their vacation at the local lake, although the wife is dreaming of the seaside. One day she meets a bohemian writer with slightly suicidal tendencies (Miroslav Táborský) and an attractive colleague with Spanish roots (Kristína Peláková) walks into Frantisek's office and things get moving...
Emil (Vaclav Chalupa as a teen, Ondrej Vetchy as an adult) has been naughty, and his family is at a loss about what to do with him. He's been dallying with the family maid. They decide to ship him off to spend time with his uncle Ernst Michel Piccoli), who married his family maid. The boy has a good relationship with his uncle, and a touching picture of Czech family life just at the advent of World War II emerges. Since Emil and Ernst are both Jewish, they are eventually carted away by the Nazis.
Whizzy is a little mouse, Whitebelly is a fox. They are naturally mortal enemies. One day, after an unfortunate accident, both meet in animal heaven. Together, they will embark on a fantastic journey and discover friendship can overcome everything.
Worried that his father is gay and that it's hereditary, 13-year-old Tomás gets his girlfriend pregnant. Therein ensues a romantic comedy of errors.
A cheerful fairy tale about a prince whose parents wanted to cure him with a magic potion. The king and queen are very unhappy with their son's irresponsibility, as they would like to marry him off and hand over the reigns of power to him. They therefore invite the witch Valentina to the castle to prepare a magic potion of responsibility for Prince Hector. However, the potion is too strong, and so everything begins to unfold a little differently than the royal parents had imagined.
The story of two brothers separated by one woman. A top neurosurgeon mired in a vicious circle of surgeries, alcohol and amorous adventures and his hot-blooded brother, back from the Czech mission in Afghanistan, raising two daughters but losing his battle with debts and a return to normal life. And it's all run by their mother. Their fates are intertwined with other characters of colleagues, fellow soldiers, friends, but they all have something in common. Everyone is a bit of a bastard sometimes...
The construction of a gigantic facility such as the Dukovany nuclear power plant requires only the most capable experts. Such is the engineer Hlaváč, who has been involved in the project from the very beginning as a construction manager. He has to deal with many problems, especially the lack of manpower. He is unfairly demoted to a lower position due to the intrigues of his subordinates and the alibi of the management, but time proves him right and by the time the plant is inaugurated, he is once again the main manager. But the demanding job takes its toll, his heart cannot withstand the frantic pace of work...
Irena is the energetic owner of a thriving business. However, after a serious car accident, she decides to sell her company and donate the proceeds to those in need. When her son Jarda finds out that she has begun giving away the fortune he was supposed to inherit, he begins to pressure his wife to have his own mother declared incompetent.
A story about a young medical school student and his adventures.
The story of a young man who found the meaning of love and a place in life at the cost of a loss.
Nineteen-year-old Pavel Kříž spends all his free time in Prague's arcades, bistros and discos with a group of thieves called Roby. Pavel has a high school diploma, but works as a window cleaner, and a large part of his income comes from the scams, scams and thefts of Roby's crew, to whom he supplies guaranteed tips. So he's not too happy when the cleaning manager assigns him a young temp, Jana Hálková. Although the girl makes no secret of her distaste for Pavel's way of life, a fragile emotional bond develops between them. But this cannot last in the environment in which Pavel moves. The young man gets into more and more trouble - part of Roby's party is caught by the police and he cannot find the money to pay back the debt. The situation escalates when a group of thieves kidnap Jana...
A bittersweet comedy starring the great Vlastimil Brodský as Fanda, an old man who refuses to grow up. Despite pleas from his exasperated wife who wants him to make serious decisions about the future, Fanda ignores the nagging and spends his days seeking amusement and adventure.
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...
Radio correspondent Karel Beran returns briefly to Prague from the Middle East due to an anonymous tip, but a revolution suddenly breaks out in Kambur just then. To fulfill his duty, he fabricates live reports from his Vinohrady apartment, simulating the uprising’s sounds with kitchen appliances. When Czech Radio decides to send a support team, he faces an impossible choice: admit the deception or stage his own death.
Georges Flavier, once renowned Parisian hairdresser, lives alone since the death of his son and the departure of his wife. One night, he saves a stranger from drowning in the Canal Saint-Martin.
The film portrays the final days of the most famous Czech authoress, Božena Němcová, who in the mid-19th century dared to live a life free of social constraints.
A new man comes into the world and his fate is watched over by three female judges. One of them endows him with exceptional qualities, the second puts many obstacles in his way and the third advises him how he can find his happiness in life in spite of everything. But what happens if one of the women judges fails in her task? In a fairy tale story full of suspense, humour and surprises, the kind and wise girl Johanka finds out for herself... There will be a stubborn prince, an unjust and greedy uncle, or a forgetful fairy Tea, but most of all a lot of love, which, as it happens in fairy tales, will help Johanna to overcome almost all the obstacles of fate.
Czech Television has successfully aired two TV movies detective novels by Emil Vachek: The man and the Shadow and Evil minute. In both stories of the First Republic, acting chief inspector Klubíčko detective Tchaikovsky stamping, bachelor, gourmet, collector of old prints, which played an excellent way Miroslav Donutil.
Eliska's husband has left her for a younger woman. She is childless, in her early forties, yet still attractive. Till then she had taken care of her successful husband, but now she has to start anew without his financial support. Eliska starts teaching at a local village school. Since she can't find a lodging, she moves to a former morgue. The small house is already occupied by a quirky and grumpy graveyard keeper named Bozicek. Their house sharing leads to a series of comical conflicts, but they eventually fall in love and Eliska proves to her ex-husband that she is able to stand on her own.
When London-based immigration officer Petr Miller receives a startling call from Prague informing him that the woman who listed him as guardian after her accident has given birth to his daughter, eight-year-old Ema, he’s forced to confront the possibility he’s an unwitting father. Reluctant to abandon his solitary life, Petr nevertheless travels to Prague to care for Ema and soon discovers that raising a child will turn his world and his heart completely upside down.
The time is 1945-46. 10 year old Eda and his friend Tonda live in a small village outside Prague. In school, their class is so wild and indisciplined that their teacher quits and is replaced by the militant Igor Hnidzo. He is very strict – but also very fair. His weakness though, is his interest in young women.
As preteen, aspiring filmmaker Tomas trains his new camera’s lens on his own world, shocking family secrets around him come into sharp focus.
Two brothers live with their mother in an old house on the outskirts of town. They both work in a printing house. Elder Bóža is a quiet, responsible person with views determined by the Christian faith. Dan is a dude who revels in pub fun. Only after the tragic death of a person, he begins to understand that something is missing in his life.
Story of a small boy is forced to move out of Prague during World War 2 to a small village of Slavonice where he meets the rest of his family. He needs to make new friends and get used to a new life which is immensely different from what this city boy was used to.
As World War II rages on, Villi and Colette are captured and sent to Auschwitz concentration camp. Imprisoned within separate compounds, the lovers must risk their lives to be together again.
Telling the story of Archimedes, one of thousands of refugees who left Greece for Czechoslovakia at the end of the 1940s, as the Greek civil war meant many communist fighters sought refuge in communist countries. Told through the eyes of Archimedes’ grown-up nephew Aris, who recalls how his uncle's life changed when he escaped from Greece to Czechoslovakia with the naive dream of a rosy future under a socialist regime. But all was not as it seemed.
Technical school student Pavel Brychta, arrives at a youth correctional facility located within a chateau in Konečno. He is an atypical, but not hopeless case for the institution. Pavel comes from a well-off family and his antisocial behaviour on the verge of criminality was some kind of response to his difficult relationship with his authoritative father. However, it takes quite some effort for Pavel to find his place in this environment of bullying, and also diverse methods from the tutors
An evil witch is trying to steal a magic purse possessed by the local ruler. Thanks to Princess Blanka's love, Prince Petr wins out over the witch.
The life story of Blessed Zdislava of Lemberk, about whom legends rather than sparse historical references tell us that she was a deeply religious woman with healing powers who devoted herself entirely to the humble service of her sick and suffering neighbors.
This romantic fairy tale, loosely based on an anonymous Arabic story, takes place at the sultan's court, where the evil sisters of the kind sultana prepare a cruel fate for Parisada and Pervis. Although it seems that fate favors the hateful malice of the poor twins' ruthless aunts, the fairy tale still comes to a happy ending.
It would never occur to a confident and proud ruler that someone somewhere is counting his misdeeds and that punishment will soon follow. Only when he becomes an exile and has to live like an ordinary person and work does he find a new approach to life and ultimately become a wise and just ruler.
"Dear sister, strawberries don't grow in winter!" Marushka begs, but her crying is in vain, neither her stepmother nor Holena shrinks from her and the girl is driven away to the snow-covered mountains where freezing January reigns. Who doesn't know the fairy tale by Božena Němcová about the good Maruška and the twelve magical brothers who knew well who deserved their help! There is no doubt that Marushka and her Hansel and Gretel will find their happiness in the end.
The honest and a bit naive director of a variety agency, Jožin Petránek, sits on the qualification committee that judges entertainers and performers of all kinds. The man firmly rejects any favouritism. But at work and at home, he's in for nothing but trouble. The rejected "artists" protest, and Jožin's wife Anna would like to promote her friend's daughter into show business. His new secretary Zuzana starts to seduce him. Petranek finally succumbs to the French chansonnier Madelaine. But Zuzana calls Mrs. Petrankova and she drives her husband away from the table and the bed. Eventually, Jozhin loses his position as director and becomes an ordinary stage recruiter. Now the real showbiz hype is just beginning for him...
The story of fifteenth century Czech icon and warlord, Jan Zizka, who defeated armies of the Teutonic Order and the Holy Roman Empire.
The devil's magic quill keeps a tight record of sins. But when this precious artifact is stolen, a demon must find a way to make things right again.
Vera has lived a wonderful life with Jindrich, and she is fully determined to fulfill his last wish - running a marathon. The emancipated and spirited mother of three daughters doesn't think that doing so will be a problem. She and her daughters will split up the route into four parts, and they'll overcome the over 42-kilometer-long challenge as a family relay team. Of course, the fact that neither of them has ever ran even a meter poses no problem.
"Power is sweetest when it is completely disproportionate – when a fool rules over the wise..." Kundera's play reveals in a farcical, even sarcastic way what drives people. For some, the most important thing is to submit and have peace of mind, while others need power over others to live. Milan Kundera says of his comedy Ptákovina that "it is a comedy so frivolous that it is more than a comedy: it is nonsense." Its intricate plot is set in motion by the Director, who draws a rhombus on the blackboard in the classroom. And it is discovered. An investigation ensues, and the all-powerful man of the city, the Chairman, also enters the game. This myth-shrouded comedy was only performed briefly in our country in 1969, and since then no one has officially seen it here. Until September 2008, when director Ladislav Smoček staged it at the Činoherní klub in Prague.
The final part of the ghost triptych will take Marta, Magdalena and Janko to the world of television. The 700th anniversary of the town of Milotín is being celebrated, there is a pilgrimage on the square, an improvised stage, prepared for the jubilee variety show, which will be broadcast on television. The director faints from this and so Marta's ghost has a body. The emcee arrives, and at the right moment the ghost of Magdalena takes possession of her body. It takes a while for the "fiery women" to settle into their new roles. The entire television crew helps them. The librarian Holoubek, who will act as an expert, knowledgeable about ancient chronicles and the history of two burned witches - Marta and Magdalena, will contribute mainly to their success.
A romantic film composed of seven intertwining love stories. Couples in love offer a glimpse into their intimate private lives as they deal with emotional problems proportional to their age and nature. Teenagers experience their first romantic love; young artists try to cope with the success and fame that has invaded their privacy; a self-destructive bohemian encounters a pure, religious being; an unfaithful husband must make a fateful decision; a lazy cynic unexpectedly falls in love; self-centered seniors with unsuccessful pasts try together to build a better future, and love disrupts even the world of paid private prostitution.
A wealthy Turk intends to establish an opera house in Smyrna with the help of opera lover Count Čipera. Opera singers are applying for the engagement, and the female singers are also fighting fiercely for the position of prima donna. The Turk has a weakness for women, but will he be the one to make the final decision? And how will this bold project turn out? A recording of a theater performance by Prague's Činoherní klub.
A psychological study of scenes from married and unmarried life, verging on the grotesque. A play about mutual attraction and insurmountable resistance between the sexes, about infidelity, emotional exaltation and hostile aridity, false self-images and ambitions, and wounded vanity. TV recording of a theatrical performance by Prague's Činoherní klub.
Based on the novel by French writer Jean Labord, who was a long-time court reporter for the Paris newspaper France-Soir, Jiří Hubač wrote a compelling story with a strong ethical message. The television film of the same name, directed by Zdeněk Zelenka, tells the story of the eternal fluctuation of justice between truth and its outward appearance. It focuses on a case of judicial error, the victim of which is a young nurse, Genevieve Leblanc. She is accused of giving a lethal injection to her lover, government advisor Dupré. In the court investigation, two prominent lawyers clash: Judge Gaudet, who gradually becomes convinced that the girl is innocent, and attorney Cassidis, who elegantly manipulates witnesses, facts, and words.
The fates of several women intertwine as they navigate professional setbacks, repair dysfunctional relationships and take control of their lives.
"Drink your life, drink it to the fullest..." sings Ješek, a carefree squire, surrounded by friends and pretty girls in a village tavern. While the young squire enjoys life, his aging mother's forehead is covered with wrinkles. The fortress is falling into disrepair, but instead of finally getting down to honest work, her son dreams of gold and riches, which, according to legend, are hidden in the nearby White Rock. Not even the sincere love of the good Johana can keep him at home, and one day Ješek sets off on a journey in search of the golden illusion...
King Jakub and Queen Anička’s family grows with their curious daughter, Princess Johanka, who loves spending time with her kindly grandfather Karaba the potter. Meanwhile, exiled advisors Lorenc and Ferenc manipulate the inexperienced Queen Julia from a neighboring realm to enact revenge, luring Karaba into a cunning trap. Now the royal family and their allies must join forces, perhaps even dusting off Karaba’s hidden skills, to outwit the schemers.
In the 1980s, the building themes were transformed into bipolar moral dilemmas involving overly ambitious individuals who wanted to excel at any cost. The hero is the head of a demolition crew that demolishes large buildings, initially a sympathetic young man who, in the pursuit of career and accolades, begins to transgress the boundaries of what was then called socialist morality and legality. He gradually finds himself at odds with the principles of ordinary but honest people. The narrative's bland, proclamatory film is closely connected to its time of creation, and there are hardly any more timeless insights to be found.
No one has ever managed to enter the dark cave of the fairy Asteria twice. Anyone brought here by chance or curiosity has been petrified. Only the brave Tomas was able to convince the fairy that his anger was mostly self-inflicted. In the end, it wasn't even that hard. It was enough to awaken the feeling of love in Asteria.
In 1930s Ukraine, the desecration of a sacred bath disrupts the sex lives of Jewish villagers.
W. A. Mozart's childhood was very busy, connected with constant travelling, full of fame and admiration. His father Leopold, an accomplished musician, led his son purposefully towards the role of child prodigy. However, their travels in Europe were not only associated with success, but also with the family's struggle for subsistence and the mother's eternal fear for the fragile health of her children. And so we follow Mozart's first steps in the world of music to the premiere of his first opera, La finta semplice, which he wrote at the age of twelve.
The theatre director encounters the disinterest and irresponsibility of the acting troupe, whose members are scheming and looking for side income. The tired and sick artist wants to finish his work at any cost.
The top sport was also closely monitored in the communist era, and officials were naturally bothered that the pentathlon team failed to win the World Championships. But the measures that should have ensured redress were caught up in a web of behind-the-scenes machinations that backfired on the athletes themselves, their endurance and their family backgrounds. While the film has critical ambitions and wants to reveal much of what should have remained hidden from the public eye, it is a rather clumsy and schematic view, not very convincing in terms of realisation.
A well-known writer now aged 75 is aware of his increasing age and the risk that his literary style will grow worn. His everyday existence is enlivened by characters from his stories, who tend to enter reality in unexpected ways, at various stages of completeness and with all kinds of strange demands.
Film makes the creative process visible by letting its narrative flow in the mind of a foreign director who is researching a film about Franz Kafka in Prague. Based on the principle of dreams and free association, segments unfold that deal with the various points of view that Kafka's work, personality and fate offer. In the labyrinth of his mind, the fictional director projects himself into situations from the author's life, with Kafka himself as his guide. At the same time, he delves into the history of the persecution of the Jews and glimpses the monstrosity of the bureaucratic apparatus that Kafka anticipated but could not have foreseen the monstrous size and function it would grow to a few years after his death in the institutionalized genocide and overall machinery of Nazism.
Janez Burger's FAMácké exercise is exceptional in that it is the only comedic or actually parodic work he has ever made. The screenwriter of this title, Jan Lipšanský, is said to have contributed to this by "reworking" the original material. Thus, instead of a dramatic probe into the inner workings of a disgraced filmmaker whose works are constantly rejected by those who are not even interested in originality, a parody was created.
The story of a music academy student Zdenek, who meets a charming girl, and without realizing also gets a son with her. Dealing with such a situation is not easy, especially when one day the child's mother disappears. Twenty year old Zdenek faces a serious decision. Although he is aware that a child may endanger his studies and perhaps even future career, he refuses to entrust him to the care of the state institution.
The idea of mystery unites the three debut stories - the original Bermuda Triangle with its mysterious phenomena has begun to shift and can be traced anywhere in the world, including Czech and Slovak territory. Here, too, unexplained shifts in space and time occur. This idea is supported by the aforementioned short stories, but the inventiveness of the subject matter and staging is very heavy-handed, and the film passed through the cinemas without much interest.
Three short stories about the people and folk around the shaft.
While Kendy returns to his hometown as an assistant director to film a thirteen-part series with a television crew, Štěpán Šafránek, equipped with his mother's advice after graduation, takes up his first position - as an intern at the local hospital. However, his inadaptability to local conditions and his sense of ethics in his chosen profession do not suit his other established colleagues. While they are amused by his zeal and responsibility, Štěpán has increasing problems with his superiors, until he is finally transferred to the position of rural district doctor, which everyone rejects. In Bezdíkov, however, he meets a new, perhaps permanent and reciprocated love, with whom he eventually decides to live and work in northern Bohemia.
Josef is a successful violin maker. He enjoys seeing the instruments he makes bring joy to people all over the world. He himself prefers to spend his time in his workshop in the courtyard of a tenement house. He has never been to the sea; his sea is a puddle in the courtyard, which he protects from drying out so that the birds have something to drink. He has no wife or children, only his dog Pampeliška, who accompanies him everywhere. Josef secretly loves his beautiful neighbor Anežka and looks forward to Wednesday chess games with his best friend Václav, a charismatic piano tuner.
Unlike any other opera, the so-called Beggar's Opera is not just one composition, but a lineage of adapted compositions, beginning with the original hugely successful 1728 political satire written by Englishman John Gay. Composers and writers have penned variations on it ever since. The most famous of these was A Threepenny Opera by Bertholt Brecht and Kurt Weill. Some things these compositions share in common is their setting among the poor and criminal classes, and the roguish character Macheath. This production is based on an adaptation of Gay's original by Vaclav Havel the freedom-fighter, writer and philosopher who became the first (and only) president of the united post-communist country of Czechoslovakia, and it retains many traces of its theatrical origins. Film reviewers were not too tolerant of what they called "slavish adherence" to the noted Czech writer's stage production, but theater, philosophy and history buffs may feel otherwise.
For centuries, the cold lights of the stars have gazed down on human endeavors from the heavenly plains, and for centuries, people have tried to read their destinies from the movements of the stars... And it is precisely how dangerous it is to blindly believe dubious interpreters of the stars that is the subject of the fairy tale The Star of Life. An old duke calls upon the renowned astrologer, Master Vecchio, to be the tutor of his daughter Drahomíra. The power-hungry astrologer convinces the duke, with the help of false horoscopes, that if he does not give him his daughter's hand in marriage, he will perish in battle. Drahomíra, faithful to her childhood love for the hunter Ondřej, does not believe the master, and so the devious Vecchio sets a trap for her...
This powerful and inspiring feature-length documentary describes the incredible "Japanese journey" of Olympic judo champion Lukáš Krpálek against the backdrop of the unknown story and confessions of his greatest rival. Gentle Fighter is a film for anyone looking for inspiration in stories about willpower and overcoming obstacles. It is a film that shows that true strength does not come from the size of muscles and the power of tendons, but mainly from the mindset.