Jan Kačer
Zdena, a young nurse, starts her first night shift at an old people’s home and immediately faces a difficult task: she has to deal with the body of a deceased client. A gentle portrait of faltering youth and a realistic tale of an encounter with death in a blend of physically intense moments and absurd humour.
It's one bad day for Rudolf, a lonely 77-year old retired linguist, when he finds himself tailed by a dog he can't get rid of on his way to the post office. This encounter eventually leads to a complete and unexpected change in his life.
Czech Television's epic historical film draws on the breathtaking dramatic life of the great of Czech history, King Charles IV.
An exciting drama from a detective history. In 1899 a dead girl - seamstress Anežka Hrůzová - was found between the village of Věžnička and the town of Polná. She was 19 and she had a cutting wound on the throat. There was no sexual violence involved and since the local doctors thought that there was not enough blood on the crime scene, everyone jumped to the conclusion that Jews must have killed her and added her blood to their passover matzot. There was a potential murderer at hand too - a cheeky, not very bright young Jewish rover, Leopold Hilsner…
Based on real event, Bolero is an excellent story of progressive recovery of a crime. The story surprises all the time, shows new connections, new possibilities, exposes new ideas and facts. It's possible to understand the film on more levels. It describes the position and all the feelings of victim's family, the police work as well as the impact of the crime on it's malefactors. It also touches the topic of moral decay of the descendants of rich, high-posted families. In addition to this, the power of the storyline is accentuated by the quality of the artistic treatment of the whole piece.
Sentiment is Tomáš Hejtmánek's intimate documentary portrait of the great Czech director František Vláčil. The film was inspired by encounters with the filmmaker and told through taped interviews, reconstructions of meetings with Vláčil, visits to actual film locations (of Marketa Lazarova, The Valley of the Bees and Adelheid) and Vláčil-inspired film sequences. The result is one of the most unique and personal portraits of any artist – a collage of voices, sounds and images that evoke and celebrate Vláčil’s life and work.
An expedition arrives on planet Arkha, which appears desolate and uninhabited and yet suitable for a planned mass exodus from polluted Earth. One day seemingly from nowhere and quite unexpectedly a young boy wanders into their ship and then runs off.
An allegory set in an archetypal Czech village, it tells of what happens when a sequence of mysterious events take place, including the disappearance of the stationmaster. While everything has a rational explanation, collective paranoia takes hold and everyone’s worst instincts are released. Interrogations, the abolition of rights and the search for scapegoats ultimately lead to murder
An overprotective mother plagues her daughter out of guilt over unintentionally scarring her daughter's cheek.
A car accident occurs and Dusan's teenage daughter Milena gets very seriously injured. To add insult to injury, Dusan is unable to donate a kidney when he finds out he is not Milena's biological father. Dusan is left to cope with his wife's infidelity, as well as the life of his ailing daughter.
In this Czech political allegory-cum-sci-fi adventure, ten teens from different schools find themselves chosen to take part in a special skiing workshop in the mountains. On the day of the seminar, eleven young people, each bearing an invitation, arrive. A massive avalanche occurs and the ski-lodge is cut off from outside contact. Unfortunately, food supplies are limited and the three instructors strongly advise that the youths work together to make do or choose someone to leave. Time passes and soon the kids learn that their “teachers” are not what they seem to be.
This distinctive documentary portrait of Prague extolls the beauty, significance and spirit of the ancient city adopting modern way of life. The form and content of the film share a common underlining principle. The author doesn't simply list out the sequence of events, but rather approaches them in a broader context of their historic implications and circumstances. The content of the film covers a large period from the pagan times to these days. The facts are grouped under several general headings (paganry, the spread of Christianity, renaissance, baroq and modern times) with allusions to the modern life of Prague and Praguers that has its roots in those times.
Series about the life of Renaissance anatomist, scholar and politic Johannes Jessenius. Already legendary series today, was produced by Czechoslovak Television Bratislava, directed by Slovak director Miroslav Luther in the first half of 80's in Barrandov Studios in Prague. The story and screenplay of the series wrote Czech writer Vladimír Körner. Five-episodes epic historical narration is a biographical story of distinguished Renaissance scholar, anatomist and politic of Slovak origin, Johannes Jessenius (Ján Jesenský, 1566–1621). It displays his life from the first studies and successes. In 1594 he became professor of surgery and anatomy on Wittenberg University, which he had attended years before. From that moment, his life went through social and personal wins and losses, to the sad end on the Prague Old Town Square gallows, among 27 noblemen, knights and burgenses, after lose Bohemian Revolt in 1621. His destiny was coupled with key events of Czech history in the break of 16th and 17th century, when Renaissance and European humanism slowly fade out.
Three detective stories, three different views of life and death... Collection of three horror short stories.
A young woman from an old patrician family in Prague collapses and is institutionalized in a psychic ward. The non-linear narration unveils here fortunes one by one. The prose of Jakub Arbes is the basis for this experimental film poem. The storyline is uncovered in a mosaic of pictures in a purely visual form, without a single word.
Ondrej, a young boy who loves bees and bats, is introduced to his new mother, a woman much younger than his father. Her brings her a bowl of flower petals which she starts to throw in the air and then gives out a shriek, as she discovers several bats in the bottom of the bowl. In a rage, Ondrej's father picks the boy up and hurls him against a wall. Then as the boy lays in a stupor the father promises the Holy Virgin to dedicate the boy to her if she will spare his life. The boy lives and Ondrej is raised in a strict monastic order, where he is mentored by a very pious warrior monk, Armin. One day after being chastised for no good reason, he escapes and returns home. Armin heads out to bring him back. With his father dead, Ondrej becomes lord of the castle and becomes engaged to his father's widow. Near the end, Armin shows up and attempts to get Ondrej to come back to the order.
"A refined film essay about the loneliness, wisdom and humility of old women. The film, most valued by Jan Špáta, was awarded the Grand Prize at the International Short Film Festival in Oberhausen, the Trilobit Award and Special Mention at the IFF in Karlovy Vary."
The invincible agent Cyril Juan Borguette alias W4C has been assigned a mission to go to a hotel in Prague, get hold of a saltcellar with a plan for the military exploitation of Venus hidden in it, and hand it over to the beautiful agent Alice. He will have to compete for the saltcellar with other agents working for the world's various greater and smaller powers. The head of the Prague counter-intelligence unit gets news of agent W4C's mission. Deficient in personnel, he nominates accountant Foustka as agent 13B. Mr Foustka takes his dog Pajda with him and the two head for the airport. Pajda helps him track down agent W4C in a classy hotel that becomes the battleground for the interests and plans of the secret agents from different countries, each trying to get hold of the precious saltcellar.
Bernhard works as a warehouse clerk in Munich. After being sentenced to probation for a physical altercation with a right-wing extremist, he could no longer continue his engineering studies. Bernhard meets Johanna. She comes from a well-to-do family; her father is a real-estate developer and her brother is in the diplomatic service. Bernhard wants to share his roots with her, so the two go to Prague, where he lived until the end of the war. But her father disapproves of the trip to the Eastern bloc. When Bernhard finds out that he owes his chance to develop new technology, which led to his career advancement, to his girlfriend’s father, he is upset …
Engineer Jan Sebek (Jan Kacer) is undergoing treatment in a mental home after his unsuccessful attempt to commit suicide. His therapist, via discussions both with the patient and with people who know him, tries to find out what made the young and seemingly satisfied man decide to end his own life. Jan's pretty wife Jana (Jana Brejchová) claims not to know about anything but she is conducting an affair with a family friend, almost publicly and with the blessing of her parents.
A gifted poet checks into a Gothic hotel in hopes of meeting the woman with whom he has long been enamored. He is surrounded by a variety of offbeat characters like the hefty homosexual cook, shadowy clerks, snooty waiters, and valets prone to violence. He finally meets the woman of his dreams only to lose her and ultimately meet with tragedy.
A successful art historian who has trouble telling people difficult truths, finds himself in an inescapable situation when a small lie quickly gets out of hand.
A passionate communist worker is discouraged by the changing political climate and the failure of his peers to live up to his ideals.
Pavel is a Czech partisan fighter in the waning days of the war. Just as peace is declared, Pavel is shot in the spine and sent to the hospital emergency ward. As he fades in and out of consciousness, he recalls the events that led to his participation in the underground. Holding German occupation commander Engelchen responsible for all the horrors and deprivations heaped upon his comrades, Pavel is kept alive by the possibility of recovering and exacting vengeance upon the Nazi officer - no matter how long it takes.
