Milan Sandhaus

Thirty Cases of Major Zeman is a Czechoslovak action-drama television show intended as a political propaganda to support the official attitude of the communist party. The series were filmed in the 1970s. Each episode encompasses one year, and investigations are stylized to that year. Most are inspired by real cases. The series follows the life of police investigator Jan Zeman during his career from 1945 to 1975.

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On 20th of April 1945 the Soviet army launches its attack on Berlin. The end has come for Nazi Germany and Hitler decides to commit suicide. In Prague K.H. Frank (Nazi Secretary of State and Chief of police in the Protectorate of Bohemia a Moravia) discusses with his commanders how to transform the city into an impregnable fortress, but the Praguers do not intend to wait any longer. From the early hours of 4th of May people start assembling in the streets and tearing down German signs. On the next day, the 5th of May, the uprising begins.

Otakar Vávra dedicated his latest film to events accompanying the devastation of the first World War. It takes place in representative centers of power, in the courts of Vienna, Berlin and Moscow. In parallel, it develops the fate of the Czech archivist, who will take part in the Serbian anti-Austrian branch.

The lives of 7 friends in a small Czech town from 1945 to some time after 1958.

Life of Czechoslovak soldiers in a military unit for the so called "politically unreliable" - the Technical auxiliary battalions, aka "the black barons". Although it might seem like a political satire and it's mostly funny, it shows the reality and the absurdity of military service under the communist regime. Based on a novel by Miloslav Svandrlik.

In 1955, a detained agent feigns loss of memory, speech and hearing. According to his written statements, his name is Karel Neumann and he was born in Radhost...

The distressing fate of the Czech great Jan Amos Komenský, forced to leave his homeland after the White Mountain disaster. It depicts his encounters with various European personalities of the 17th century - the Queen of Sweden, artists and scientists. It emphasises the hero's nobility, but also his inner resilience, which allowed him to overcome many personal and professional tragedies. The parable of The Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart becomes part of the story. However, Comenius's concept is sculpturally lifeless and, in particular, the religious dimension is "erased" from it. The simplistic biography therefore does not avoid schoolboyish dryness.

Captain Záruba investigates after an anonymous tip flags the seemingly extravagant lifestyle of Chemotex technician Dagmar Králová. Summoned to discuss the matter, Králová’s quarrel with engineer Vaněček, who secretly runs a suburban bootleg alcohol factory, triggers panic among the illicit network led by hotelier Černý. When Králová is found dead near the site of a murdered hitchhiker, autopsy reveals a different killer, launching parallel murder investigations. Forensic teams uncover the clandestine distillery, and gradually piece together motives and perpetrators behind both deaths.

The photographer and his wife, a former beauty queen, make a living casting death masks. But their obsession goes so far that they decide to cast the face of a living person.

Saxony, devastated by the Thirty Years' War, is led by the comedy troupe of the principal Fortunato. The student Vavrinec has fled Bohemia and greatly values the text of Shakespeare's tragedy Romeo and Juliet, which he has acquired on his wanderings around the world.

World War II is slowly coming to an end. On the German side of the border, panic slowly breaks out and the local commander orders the local port to be mined. The Czech boatmen take advantage of the sudden confusion and decide to carry out a crazy plan: steal a German ship full of explosives and sail towards Prague, which according to fascist plans is to become the last German stronghold...

Elementary school student Jožka has a great love – horses. He is looking forward to turning this love into a profession. However, he is atoning for his father's criminal activities, he is not accepted into his dream school focused on horse breeding due to a bad report and has to be content with learning to be a tractor driver. However, he continues to do his best for horses, he trains the racehorse Palisander, who has never won. His outsider fate is similar to his. However, Jožka wins everything there is to win despite various ups and downs – he stands up to bullying in the youth home, an arrogant tutor, human weaklings, manages to study well even at a school that he doesn't enjoy and does sports. He also gains the respect of his classmates. Real jockeys also star in the film. It also features the birth and death of a horse. The scene where Jožka's father saves a horse from a burning truck is dramatic. The scenes with carrier pigeons are touching.

At the year 1946, the time of the Nuremberg Process. One of the main actors of the Second World War, who reportedly committed suicide, Adolf Hitler is, however, missing. The Czech doctor Herman (Karel Höger) is kidnapped from Prague and driven to the sanatorium of Professor Rolf Harting (Jirí Vrstála). The sanatorium is a disguised military stronghold, most probably occupied by a Nazi garrison, with prison cells and an execution chamber in the basement. At night, Herman is taken to a patient in whom he, to his horror, recognizes Hitler (Fritz Diez).

Juraj, a Slovak artist living in Prague, takes stock in his life, realizing that his days pass without purpose. He lives a carefree life. But now he has to choose between two women, between the city and the country, and between creative work and craftsmanship. He has a passion for art but he also has to make a living. Through his relationships with close people, he grows aware of his position and this knowledge helps him to live a more fulfilling and better life.

A crime story set in the second half of the 19th century. Krasl, a Prague schoolteacher, is searching for a statue of the Golden Buddha, which is supposed to contain compromising materials on the factory owner Riessig.

At the turn of the 10th and 11th centuries Boleslav's kingdom fell apart in the fratricidal war between the Přemyslovci and the other clans the main profiteer of this being the German emperor. At that time it seemed as if the Czech state and the lineage of its princes was awaiting its end..." It is with these words that the tale of this film begins, whose narrative is based upon the the play by František Hrubín of the same name.

Pacific Island - 1945. Five American soldiers were sent to reconnoiter the Japanese rear. Surrounded by unpredictable jungle and terrible heat, they have been moving in unknown territory for over two weeks in order to find the enemy. Commander Grackmiller, due to the fatigue of the rest of the platoon, takes it upon himself to scout the area ahead of them, and the soldiers Smile, Burda, Tall and Rozden are to wait for him and hold position. The heat to kill, exhaustion and nervousness soon begin to take a toll on their sanity and morale. Unafraid to say anything to each other's faces, vigilance and caution are completely gone and paranoia and suspicion take over instead. After a while, strange noises start coming from the jungle, which Smile goes to investigate, and comes back pale as death...

Taxi driver Koukal (Miroslav Machácek) is stopped by the police for a routine traffic check. In the boot of his car the police find the body of a naked man. Koukal is arrested even though he claims he knows nothing about it. The case is assigned to Major Mlynár (Milan Sandhaus). The police identify the corpse as that of an Austrian citizen called Mitrik. Koukal has been regularly driving people interested in gambling to a secret gaming den. The police are put onto the gambling den by another taxi driver, who admits that he drove Mitrik there. Mlynár and officer cadet Pecka (Ivan Vyskocil) feign interest in gambling and visit the gaming den incognito.

It is 1883 and Josef Hibes, a social democrat, is organising a strike of textile workers. The main demand is a reduction in working hours...