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A documentary about the various forms of the desire for perfection. Director Eva Tomanová uses the stories of four protagonists to show the motivations that lead people to often unrealistic aspirations, and explores why and at what cost they aspire to fulfil them. She reflects on how treacherous the process of reaching the ideal is and how easy it is to get lost on the road to perfection.
It is 1961 and an Albanian student (Nik Xhelilaj) of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, together with a group of Czech students, is shooting his graduate movie on a motorcycle factory, in the small market-town of Český Šternberk, in then Czechoslovakia. Coming from a country that is completely isolated from the rest of Europe, he is fascinated by the lifestyle, society and "erotic exuberance" of the Czech golden youth, yet feeling strong links with his family in his homeland. He falls in love with a married woman (Anna Geislerová), the wife of a police superintendent (Paolo Buglioni) and is insecure about his future.
The Building Bridges project brings together perpetrators of crime with the victims of crime. Behind the walls of the prison in Jiřice near Nymburk, one such group tells stories that have fatally affected their lives in a conference room over the course of eight weeks. So-called restorative justice sees crime primarily as harm and the disruption of interpersonal relationships. It is in partnership with victims that offenders are encouraged to take responsibility for their actions. Not only is the will to listen to the other person necessary, but also the ability to consciously reflect on the causes and consequences of one's actions in a complex web of social contexts.
A platonic relationship between a young girl employed at a spa hotel and its former client develops through romantic letters full of old-fashioned respect, exchanged between the couple in the mid-50s.
The year 2022 marks the 70th anniversary of one of the most extensive, infamous trials in post-war Czechoslovakia. Fourteen accused communist functionaries stood before the Supreme Court in Prague. Among them was Otto Šling. The court sentenced eleven to death, forfeiture of property, and loss of honorary civil rights. All defendants waived their right to appeal. Karel Šling is the last direct descendant of all eleven executed. Even at 75, he doesn't give a happy and composed impression. He is still dealing with traumas that he had and could not have had any influence over.
The documentary film uncovers the story of Mašín brothers, which is of the greatest stories of the Cold War. A group of five young men decided to leave the then-communist Czechoslovakia with guns in hand to join the fighting in the then expected war between the West and the East. The year was 1953, and today, through the last witnesses, we follow the 30-day dramatic journey to West Berlin and the subsequent fateful events that happened to her loved ones at home.
