Michael Kocáb

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Prague at the end of the 14th century: King Wenceslas, his brother Sigismund, the Archbishop of Prague Zbynek and three popes are locked in a power struggle. All lay claim to influence over the Holy See. Jan Hus, a master of Charles University and preacher, feels partly responsible for the fate of the divided church and its faithful, for whom it serves as a role model. He thus attracts the resentment of the powerful. "Jan Hus" is the story of a man who, because of his convictions, faced death in the battle between the opinions and ambitions of ecclesiastical and secular authorities.

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A darkly brilliant stop-motion adaptation of The Pied Piper of Hamelin about a plague of rats that punish townsfolk corrupt with greed. One of Czechoslovakia's most ambitious animation projects of the 1980s, notable for its unusual dark art direction, innovative animation techniques and use of a fictitious language.

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Two amateur circus kids from a poor Ukrainian village, ten-year-old Barbu and his older sister Mimma, are sold to a circus artist called Caruso who promises them a career in the West.

Eleven disparate adolescents, gathered for a skiing camp at an isolated winter resort, find themselves preyed upon and set against one another by their three mysterious instructors.

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.

The Slippers of Happiness is another film made by the Slovak Film Production in co-production with West German companies based on classic world fairy tales. After Slovak folk tales [The Greatest Peck in the World, Salt Over Gold] and the works of German fairy tale writers Wilhelm Hauff [The False Prince] and the Brothers Grimm [The Land of the Thrush's Beard, Perinbaba], screenwriter Alex Koenigsmark and director Juraj Herz were inspired by the famous fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. It tells the story of slippers that the Fairy of Fortune enchanted so that they would fulfill every human wish and thus bring people happiness. The filmmakers humorously transferred the plot from Copenhagen to old Prague.

A communist journalist from Prague is sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp.

From the behavior, discourse, and appearance of individual actors, Vachek composes, in the form of a mosaic, a broad and many-layered film-argument about Czechoslovak democracy in the period of its rebirth, all administered with the director’s ini­mitable point of view.

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...

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The story begins in 1984 in Prague, Czechoslovakia, few years before the end of Communist era. The band Pražský výběr (Prague's selection) has just received the news thier 5-year ban has expired and they are alowed to perform once again. This half fantasy half document about the band would draw the atmosphere of middle european late Communist era and the eufory of it's end.