Production
A desperate hunger strike meant to capture global media attention slowly unravels into a hilariously bleak showdown between ambition, reality, and an empty stomach.
Film crew on the road: Director (Jaroslav Plesl), his Producer (Simona Babcáková), and their Director of Photography (Jirí Vyorálek) and Sound Arist (Johana Svarcova). Starving artists who already have a number of films to their names, Czech Lion award-winning films, excellent reviews and have been screened at numerous festivals, but they don't have audiences. Their next collaborative effort - the Director's lifetime dream - is quickly becoming oblivion because he failed to win a grant, which means it won't be made. And so the frustrated Director and his colleagues await their chance among record-holders of curious disciplines such as crawling with a squash racket or collecting four-leaf clovers. How will the collision of these two worlds end? What will the Director's next film be about?
In a deserted clearing, a forest ranger finds the lifeless body of a man. He manages to revive him, but the man remembers nothing. He doesn't know how he got into the forest or why he is covered in blood, and instead of answering questions, he runs away. The ranger sets out after him and gradually discovers that the man is involved in a bloody vendetta, which he may have initiated himself and in which his fourteen-year-old daughter plays an important role.
Romania, 1989. The twilight of Nicolae Ceaușescu’s dictatorship. In a small, isolated town, Maria, a ten-year-old girl, is the last person to witness her sister disappearing before her eyes. Torn apart by the loss, she tries to make sense of a new, terrifying reality. Can she summon the courage to grow up?
“Puppeteer, tell us a story we don’t know yet!” the audience calls out to a traveling thespian. And so he starts to recount a story about a boy born of the forbidden love between brother and sister, who had many adventures, who spent 17 years tied to a rock, and who perhaps was also… a hedgehog? But that’s not as important as how, after overcoming all these obstacles, he ended up becoming the Pope.
This Czech documentary presents a visit to the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (a.k.a. Trans-Dniestr) as a trip to a museum of communist totalitarianism. The country, whose independence has been recognized by only a few other states, remains an isolated multi-ethnic enclave held together by an authoritarian regime. In a country where you are only allowed to film out the window of a train, the locals are afraid of being denounced but are glad to live in a comfortable refuge from the hectic modern world, and songs on television celebrate the president.
The day’s work never ends for a guard worth his salt, even when the gallery closes at seven. And Vašek is a perfect example, at least until he meets Ginger – a femme fatale who has her own plans where he’s concerned. Love turns this nice lad into a thief: armed with a false moustache, sunglasses and a stolen painting, he gets on a train and it remains to be seen whether or not his journey to Rome is paved with good intentions. The train compartment is full of passengers keen to impart their life stories – to him or to anyone who’ll listen. The withdrawn young man pays close attention to it all, even though he has plenty to worry about as it is. The police and a bunch of crooks are hot on his heels and it’s difficult trying to give them the slip with a hefty painting in tow.
The six-hour essay in four parts examines the history of regimes and revolutions, leaders and martyrs, from a philosophical perspective. The collage of personal memories, staged scenes and archives of collective memory compares the Prague Spring to the Velvet Revolution and shows the exposure, conflict, crisis, and catharsis of the post-communist society.
Prague, night station in winter. Radka with a small daughter, a suitcase on wheels and a sports bag get off the bus. Luděk slowly walks back home through the streets of the same city, knowing that no one is waiting for him. A few hours before dawn, the initially purposeful intersection of lonely destinies can resemble a family. A Night with Agama is about the meeting of people who are dependent on the help of others, yet have to help themselves first and foremost.
Based on a true story. 1996, open sea. During his shift on a transatlantic ship’s deck, Joel, a religious Filipino sailor, discovers Dumitru, a Romanian stowaway hidden between some containers. If he is spotted by the Taiwanese officers running the vessel, Dumitru is at risk to be thrown overboard. Joel decides to hide him, as a sign of his gratitude towards God. Soon, a dangerous cat and mouse game begins. When his crew, his own friends, even God itself start to turn their backs on him, Joel learns that he has to face his cruel destiny alone.
Karel Vachek’s latest documentary essay deals with the fine line between an internal belief in God and institutionalized religion. At the same time it brings up the need for a healthy sense of skepticism and the benefit of not believing in anything that advertises itself as certain. The filmmaker sets out for the USA, Japan, Great Britain, Poland, and the Balkans in his sometimes amusing investigation of spiritual substitutes, such as esoteric "teachings” or various fraudulent and magical practices, to which we sometimes fall prey due to our natural religious cravings. In addition to a Czech "prefab” family, who describe the carryings-on of their poltergeist, well-known mystery buffs appear in the film: Erich von Däniken, Raymond Moody Jr., and Ivan Mackerl.
Libor, a former teacher, enjoys a well-paid position as a bank manager, living in a luxurious villa outside Prague. His business partners are taken into custody and the authorities have a few questions for him to answer. Rather than wait around, he decides to take off to Moravia with his wife and two children. In the process, he pretends that everything is normal, rediscovers the value of family life, meets up with a former colleague lost in provincial obscurity, and becomes the object of a manhunt. Libor is not a criminal type, merely someone who signs cheques and is drawn into a business world failing to recognise its own criminality (he doesn’t even flee the country).
A film about the mysterious lady of the castle, Countess Mitsuko Maria Thekla Coudenhove-Kalergi, who was the first Japanese woman to come to Europe at the turn of the 19th century. She lived mainly in the border region near the Bavarian border and managed the castle in Poběžovice, the property of her late husband, Count Heinrich Coudenhove-Kalergi. She was a strong and educated woman, but she never lost her longing for her native country.
At the 1982 Cannes Film Festival, Wim Wenders invited several of his esteemed colleagues to a hotel room, where he filmed their reflections on the future of film. This exclusive documentary survey, Room 666, inspired two Czech producers to engage in a similar undertaking in collaboration with the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. During last year’s festival, they thus invited around thirty Czech or Czech-based filmmakers from all generations and asked them “what makes Czech film Czech?” The result is an exciting mosaic not just of views and opinions, but also of mannerisms and personalities.
Thirteen-year-old Czech boy and a Belgian girl of the same age who meet at a roadhouse facility want to meet and talk to each other in a short time between lunch and their departure. With the help of an Arab truck driver and an African football player, they overcome the language barrier and manage to spend a few minutes without their families. Both share a modern European experience in this modest location. "Divine Sparks" offers a pleasant story about the power of communication and prejudices.
This architecturally unique resort on the shores of Lake Orlík was a secret retreat for the communist establishment in the 1960s, but later, rampant capitalism handed it over to now infamous businessmen. Imbued with a mysterious atmosphere, this portrait captures the genius loci and turbulent history of a hidden summer paradise that was never marked on any map.
