Editing
Jan Sikl expertly edits together actual home-movie footage from the 1920s to the 1960s in order to chronicle the history of Czechoslovakia in the 20th century. In eight episodes of 52 minutes, the major events of Czech history, including the Depression, the occupation by the Nazis, World War II, and the rise of communism are depicted through the experiences of real-life Czech citizens. The series reveals that history is the story of ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances - not the dry, dull set of names and dates taught in schools. —Susan Doll
A doc presenting portraits of four people unafraid to reveal their particular lifelong penchant for sadomasochistic practices: Altair, whose orientation links him to the world of horses, latex lover Fronéma, the provocative Lenka, and government employee Terezie.
Adam Oĺha's father, a well-known Slovak educator and filmmaker, decided to leave his wife and six children and start anew after years of living together. Adam takes his place and starts recording the family's peripeteia. As the eldest of the siblings and the last man in the family, he examines his father's old picture records, compares them with the present and tries to find out what led to this radical change.
A very free adaptation of Marlowe's "Doctor Faustus", Goethe's "Faust" and various other treatments of the old legend of the man who sold his soul to the devil. A nondescript man is lured by a strange map into a sinister puppet theatre, where he finds himself immersed in an indescribably weird version of the play, blending live actors, clay animation and giant puppets.
A Czech high diver's Olympic dreams are shattered when she suffers a devastating injury while training. Forced to leave the sport she loves, she follows a photographer friend into the world of nude modeling, ultimately reinventing herself as an adult film actress. Inspired by the true story of diving champion Andrea Absolonová.
A portrait of a small Moravian village and its quirky inhabitants.
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After years together, Petr and Hana, partners in work and in life, share their unspoken erotic fantasies. What begins as an innocent conversation gradually turns into curious experimentation with a non-monogamous approach to their relationship. But sexual freedom tastes differently for each of them.
A naive tale about the ruthless cruelty of our existence, about a crocodile and how it all turned out well.
Relationship between two women – mother and daughter in the second half of the 20th century. The story takes place in a old family house. The mother is confined to bed unable to move in her daughter's custody. The daughter comes in her mother's room to take care of her with a confession to tell. Something happened with her son and her mother's grandson three years ago.
An imaginative and playful collage of images from the life of cows. A mosaic of small stories from around the world, in which cows experience both positive and negative moments, depicts the life of an animal in a global world and its relationship with man. Visually colorful images depict the cow as a sensitive creature worthy of admiration. The film gives hope for a better world with its stylized poetics, playfulness and humor.
A pig farm in Lety, South Bohemia would make an ideal monument to collaboration and indifference, says writer and journalist Markus Pape. Most of those appearing in this documentary filmed in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland, France, Germany and Croatia have personal experience of the indifference to the genocide of the Roma. Many of them experienced the Holocaust as children, and their distorted memories have earned them distrust and ridicule. Continuing racism and anti-Roma sentiment is illustrated among other matters by how contemporary society looks after the locations where the murders occurred. However, this documentary film essay focuses mainly on the survivors, who share with viewers their indelible traumas, their "hole in the head".
The Toilet as a Place of Encounter with the World and with Oneself. A documentary reflection by Jan Gogola Jr. A meditation on the toilet as more than a place of necessity — as a gallery, a space for rest, reflection, friendship, and creation. Flushing Eternity turns the everyday act of going to the bathroom into a journey of poetic, spiritual, and human discovery, through encounters with artists, sociologists, attendants, and dreamers.
“Most prisoners like boxes.” The constrained nature of prisons opens up an infinitude of fantasies and free artistic expression. Environment determines means of expression. A project of confrontation and dialogue with artists from the outside shows radical diff erences and a conspiratory divergence from social norms. This essay on imaginary and physical freedom introduces us to the extreme thoughts of our own boundaries and limitations.
The film follows the fate of the real inhabitants of the former German village of Vitín. The central character of the film is Otto Hille, who comes from a Czech-German family. He prepares an expedition for the old and seriously ill Leopold Švarc, which is supposed to be a cathartic journey into the past shrouded in mystery. Schwartz is accompanied by the faithfully serving autistic Michel, the cook Jan and Dr. Ignaci. Otto also enlists the begging bankrupt painter Henry to join the group. The expedition takes Otto to the land of his ancestors - the long-decayed German village of Vitín. He witnesses the events of 1945, where he meets his grandfather Otfried Hille. The trauma of the past becomes the key to understanding the present.
Martina is 18, loves dancing and goes by a nick name Shakira. Also, today she is leaving an orphanage...
Conceptual visual artist Ján Mančuška died in 2011. However, in his short 39 years of existence, he managed to create a number of remarkable works, many of which have been exhibited in renowned galleries around the world – including the Centre Pompidou in Paris and MoMA in New York. In his homeland, however, his work reflecting everyday life, social reality or the meaning of language has never achieved comparable fame. Together with the children of an artist who was not afraid to confront the public with the question of the meaning of art, the director embarks on a journey that aims not only to get closer to Mančuška, but also to reveal him in hitherto unrecognised shades, thus filling in the gaps that are increasingly appearing in the context of the fading memory of his personality.
When not serving regulars at a pub in the middle of a sleepy northern Moravian village, thirtysomething Maruna spends time with hesitant Jura and naïve outsider Olin – or fighting with her imperious mother. Lightened with a touch of black humor, this laconic village drama is the directorial debut of the artistic director of Prague’s Dejvice Theater who gave the members of his ensemble a one-of-a-kind acting opportunity in film.
The Dung Beetle is late, the Parasite is asleep and Mrs Larva is more interested in her knitting than the director’s instructions. It’s clear: this amateur theatre company has a long way to go before they can perform their version of "The Insect Play", a famous satirical work from 1922 by the brothers Karel and Josef Čapek which features insects with decidedly human traits: greed, egocentrism, jealousy.
Six Prague residents pursue bizarre rituals. Mr. Peony builds a chicken costume to wear while enacting homicidal fantasies toward neighbor Mrs. Loubalova, who does the same dressed as a dominatrix. Their mail carrier, Mrs. Malkova, inhales tiny balls of bread. Newsstand operator Mr. Kula obsessively watches the broadcasts of news anchor Mrs. Beltinska, whose husband regularly scrubs his body.
