At a village railway station in occupied Czechoslovakia, a bumbling dispatcher’s apprentice longs to liberate himself from his virginity. Oblivious to the war and the resistance that surrounds him, this young man embarks on a journey of sexual awakening and self-discovery, encountering a universe...
A scientist meets a nice girl and they start dating. He decides the only way to find out for sure if she’s the one is to take a long trip with her, but things don’t go quite as he’d hoped.
At long last, King Dalimil and Queen Eliška have produced an heir, Princess Růženka. Consumed with envy, Eliška’s sister Melánie casts a curse: On the day Růženka turns seventeen, she will prick her finger and fall into a deep sleep together with the entire kingdom.
Three short story omnibus. The main hero and connecting link is Lieutenant Boruvka, created by Lubomír Lipsky. He deals with the murder case between climbers, the death of the dancer in the music theater and the strange disappearance of the mathematics professor.
A manifesto of sorts for the Czech New Wave, this five-part anthology shows off the breadth of expression and the versatility of the movement’s directors. Based on stories by the legendary writer Bohumil Hrabal, the shorts range from the surreally chilling to the caustically observant to the...
Ing. Bernard announces that his wife has not returned from visiting relatives in Berlin. Lieutenant Tereza Machátová, who together with Captain Landa is investigating the matter, puts the facts into connection with the discovery of the drowned woman's body.
Set in a village, the story of a simple-minded, not-so-responsible young man who still manages to take care of his younger siblings after their father has left the family. Good thing he could lean on the principles of exemplary socialist morality. Not surprisingly, the attempt to capture something...
The story is about Harold, an isolated figure in an overwhelming world of totalitarian bureaucracy. Harold tries to find the elusive Joseph Kilian, an old acquaintance, in Prague. When Harold stumbles across a state-run cat-lending store, he impulsively rents a feline for the day. Later, he...
Three stories (Gabriela, Eda and Jana), two of which are dedicated to girls. They share a common motif of disillusionment when the protagonists encounter scorn and disinterest.
Explores young adults' fears of being conscripted by the communist government into working outside of Prague, a relative oasis of creativity and freedom of thought. From an early script by Milos Forman.
This exemplary "psychological drama" depicts the difficulties with which a new socialist mindset is born. Director Jiří Sequens warns against ill-advised marriages into the families of the defeated bourgeoisie, because the former royalty refuses to accept a man from a different social class. The...
Adolf (Miloš Kopecký), the irresistible seducer of women, is fond of Janicka (Hana Lelitová), a novice opera singer. The girl, however, prefers famous men and Adolf thus does not have a single chance with her. One day in a hospital, he meets a Greek partisan named Apostolek (Pavel Landovský)...
A poor miner, Kuba Dařbuján, cares for his wife Markýtka and eleven children. When a newborn arrives, he seeks a godfather and, finding only Death fair to all, accepts a pact: as a doctor whom Death accompanies at the foot of a patient’s bed, he can heal; but if Death stands at the head, no...
Tomás lives in a very small Czech town and is a nature lover and a birdwatcher. He struggles to keep the forests he loves clean and constantly fights his "archenemy" whose sister and Tomás's classmate is secretly in love with him.
The rude and bitter mining engineer Štěrba strongly opposes the proposal of his colleague Ing. Vochoče to reopen mining in the old mine. Vochoč's plan is precisely prepared and could solve many problems. However, Štěrba does not want to explain anything to anyone, he does not want to talk to...
Jitka, a librarian, is tasked with replacing an injured seventh-grade teacher at an elementary school. Despite her husband's resistance, she faces marital tensions, a dysfunctional classroom, and disgruntled parents. When a minor dereliction of duty leads to tragedy, she seeks help.
A colour-printed melodramatic selanca from the beginnings of the organised labour movement in Bohemia... Antonín Zápotocký, the second workers' president, is the author of the literary novel Rozbřesk - the plot is said to be inspired by the fate of his grandmother and mother.
It is the summer of 1968 and also in South Moravian Pálavice appear political clashes. The so far peacefully farming Unified farmers' cooperative starts splitting. Some of the farmers have found the cooperative called Vidrupa and want to deal with wine in private trade. Michal Janák, chairman of...
A broadly drawn ideological epic set in the summer of 1947 in the borderlands of northern Bohemia: reactionary elements plot to undermine postwar social change while committed local communists struggle to organize workers and defend the emerging order. The narrative follows several archetypal...
