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Věra Bílá

Věra Bílá

Acting

Biography

Věra Bílá was a Czech vocalist and musician of Romani ethnicity, who initially gained acclaim performing traditional Romani folk songs. She was highly acclaimed, toured internationally and was often called the "Ella Fitzgerald of Gypsy music" or the "Queen of Romany".

Known For

An Ambiguous Report About the End of the World
6.7

Set over a two-decade period in a tiny Central European village, this drama not only chronicles a couple's tragic star-crossed love, it also serves as a metaphor for the tragedy of lost traditions. After opening in the snowy wilds as two people spectacularly die, the story jumps back 20 years as young Verona prepares to marry. Unfortunately, voracious wolves descend upon the ceremony and all but Verona and her courageous 10-year-old brother-in-law Goran, who saves her, perish. That day, Verona gives birth to Veronika and promptly betroths her daughter to the heroic Goran. A decade passes and on Veronika's 10th birthday, her engagement to Goran is formally announced at a big party. Festivities halt when a troupe of female circus performers and their sly employer Madina show up. Veronika soon finds herself more interested in Madina's young son Michal than she is in the adult Goran. Meanwhile, the worldly Madina attempts to adjust to life in an old-fashioned village.

An Ambiguous Report About the End of the World

1997
I Love, You Love
5.3

The drama called I Love, You Love was made in 1980 but because of the absurd ideological ban, the film entered cinemas nine years later. Pišta is an unmarried man who works at a freight wagon which carries letters and parcels. Alcohol helps him to overcome his handicap of being short and not good-looking. He wishes he had a woman, but the woman he really wants, ageing Viera who reloads the cargoes, has a soft spot for another man. So, Pišta has nobody and nothing, except for senile mother who sometimes fails to recognize him. The film received Silver Bear for Best Director at the International Film Festival in Berlin.

I Love, You Love

1988
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9.0

A naive village girl, Valentýna, arrives in Prague and, under dramatic circumstances, becomes reluctantly entangled in the Karlín underworld as a novice prostitute controlled by the slimy gangster Pavouk and his bumbling henchman Milan. She repeatedly refuses the genuine support offered by the incorruptible mounted policeman Viktor Sokol, even as two eccentric observers serve as a choric commentary on the absurdities around them. Through parodic and poetic scenes, ranging from western-inspired mounted police sequences to a surreal “war” over exporting plastic gnomes, the film satirizes contemporary Czech society.

1996
Rose Tinted Dreams
6.4

Jakub, a dreamer and budding magician, juggles between parcels and services rendered to the villagers. His eyes cross that of the beautiful gypsy Jolanka. Together, they will try to live a first and big love, despite the pressure of their respective communities.

Rose Tinted Dreams

1977
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8.0

Frantisek is a deaf man who has spent years in prison for the apparent murder of a man he believed was threatening his then girlfriend, Liza. Once released, Frantisek begins to search for Liza, but the task proves harder than he hoped.

The Past

1998
Bye Bye Blackbird
5.3

A period drama set in the early years of the 20th century. Josef, a former construction worker who delighted in dancing on girders high above the city, who now sweeps up at the circus. Once the big top's owner spots the young roustabout defying gravity on the trapeze, however, he endeavors to pair Josef with his aerialist daughter Alice in a perilous sky-high pas de deux. Offers a romantic view of big top life, with a moth-eaten angel in his feathered, tattered costume.

Bye Bye Blackbird

2005
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N/A

No description available.

Tyjátr

2001
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A vivid documentary portrait of Véra Bílá (1954-2019), a Gypsy singer acclaimed in the international music world. The film explores Romany culture and what it means to be part of a marginalized minority group. She was dubbed the Ella Fitzgerald of Romani music. The Czech singer enjoyed international success in the late Nineties when she was signed to the German record label BMG.

Black and White in Colour

1999