Vladimír Hlavatý

The documentary First of May explores the more than a century-long evolution of the celebration and the meaning of this day. The structure is composed of memories, newspaper excerpts, testimonies found in archives, etc. - all these passages are brought to life by the actors' voices, taking on the roles of journalists, factory workers, policemen, workers and ordinary people who watch May Day, sometimes with interest and verve, sometimes with distance or irony.

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A fairy tale story about a young shoemaker Kuba, who had to go to Vienna to fight in the army, the arrogant princely steward of Kolomayzna, the water spirits, the Emperor himself and Stázina, who looked so pretty in her red skirt.

​Two aliens stir up trouble on Earth in order to study humans. Misunderstandings ensue.

Based on the only extensive prose work by the surrealist painter Josef Capek, Shades of Fern most resembles the philosophical fairy tales and fables of Josef’s older brother, the legendary Czech novelist and playwright Karel Capek. Two young poachers, more boys than men, kill a gamekeeper when they are caught illegally hunting. Panicked, they retreat into a forest that grows steadily more forbidding and deadly as their fear for the future—and guilt over their action—mounts. Loosely based on hundreds of oral folk tales and legends that haunt the woods of Czechoslovakia, Vlácil’s contemporary updating artistically underscores the relationship between man and nature, crime and punishment, isolation and society, and guilt and memory.

This satirical comedy depicts the fate of two con artists who constantly encounter sharper and more experienced rivals. In their quest for easy profits, they often change several jobs and come up with a variety of original tricks and thievery. Each time, however, someone else profits from their ideas. And when they seek revenge on their crooked rivals, they end up back where they started - behind bars...

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College student Marta decides to seal her relationship with Zdeněk with a secret wedding. All that remains is to announce this fact to both parents. The bride's parents are a very interesting couple - the strict mother, a teacher, is a big stickler for order, the father, whom the tender half affectionately calls "daddy", doesn't bother with anything and spends his time composing poems. The groom's parents are currently most concerned with how to get their daughter Marcela married in the most favorable way possible, whose idol in life is the singer Jiří Korn.

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No synopsis available yet.

The heroes of this absurd comedy, full of confusion and humor are Dzharda Zemanek and Frantisek Liska.

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This futuristic science fiction comedy features an atomic bomb blast that causes women to grow beards and lose the ability to have children. A summit meeting is held at the United Nations, with the proposed solution of building a time machine. The decision is made to travel back in time and murder Einstein, with the hopeful result being that without the noted mathematician's research there will be no atomic bombs.

Honza and Zuzana are very young husband and wife. They have a little daughter of whom willingly occasionally take care the grandparents and Honza's fifteen-year-old brother Martin. Zuzana continues studying and Honza devotes all weekends as an amateur competitor to the motor-cycles at the speedway. Zuzana is not interested in motor-cycles. Martin holds responsible for his brother's marriage and at the advice of his friend Magda, who is of the same age, invites her sister-in-law to the club of Hucul horses so that she does not feel bored. But by misfortunes and unexplained quarrels both young husband and wife start being jealous of one another.

The hero of this popular fairy tale is a young prince who, after the death of his parents, goes out into the world. During his travels he meets a magical talking horse and falls in love with the beautiful princess Slavna. On the advice of his horse, he binds one eye and pretends to be dumb and enters into service as the castle gardener.

Teenage Peter doesn't get along with his strict father. And when his father sells his beloved bitch Irina, he feels lonely. Therefore, he easily falls under the influence of an older young man, Panter, who gets his money by fraud and theft. He also involves Peter and little Fenek in his nasty tricks.

A story of love and honor that takes place during the mid-nineteenth century during revolutions, as well as economic, political, and social hypocrisy. Two extraordinary but lonely artists share a passionate love, as evidenced by the preserved letters that they exchanged.

The car thief Halama, the shy groom Poupě, the divorcing jealous Pic and the mustachioed cinema projectionist Vlk are suspected of robbing the cinema box office. They are so similar, however, that the sharp-witted Public Security investigator Doll doesn't know them at all...

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The fifteen year old Maruska starts as a new staff in the porcelain warehouse. For the boss Svetla it is the last straw. She asked to extend her staff consisting of four girls and a retired lady by a man, not a child. The kind and ever fussy Svetla, battling in vain with overweight decides to leave her position and to take another one in the office. As soon as she finds out that the position will be taken by Arnost Jarolím, she insists on a hand over inventory.

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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.

Ten-year-old Martin attends religion at school and is always an altar boy at church. That's the wish of his mother Anci, a bigoted believer. However, Martin encounters hypocrisy at every turn and begins to doubt that God exists. His older brother Eda steals money from his father with impunity, his father steals materials from the cooperative building, and even Martin's best friend Kovajs "sins" without scruples. Pastor Hornof tries in various ways to maintain his influence over his sheep, but is hindered by people with a "progressive" socialist mindset. When Martin's beloved Angora rabbits, who have done nothing wrong to anyone, die, the boy's faith is clear. He decides to join a pioneer organisation. All that's left is to keep it a secret from his mother...

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Spring 1943: A three-member group of resistance fighters flies from a Soviet military airport into the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia to establish contacts with an illegal communist center in the occupied territory.

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A troupe of young women on post-apocalyptic earth are lead around by a mistress born before the war, eventually stumbling into the company of a lonely old man.

In autumn 1941, Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich’s brutal rule in occupied Bohemia and Moravia fuels Czech resistance. In spring 1942, the government-in-exile sends trained paratroopers led by Lt. Král on a mission to assassinate him. Masters Strnad and Vyskočil ambush Heydrich’s open Mercedes in Prague’s Libeň district, mortally wounding him despite a jammed submachine gun. Their success triggers harsh Nazi reprisals, mass executions, and an intense manhunt for the operatives.

An upholsterer who is preparing a rocket for takeoff accidentally jettisons himself into space and returns to Earth 500 years later with an alien companion who wishes to learn more about the human race.

Kaspar Len returns home after three years in the army. He vainly searches for the mason Kryštof’s family where he had lived before he left. All he finds out is that Kryštof’s daughter Márynka, who was in his thoughts all those years, is now working in the local brothel. He goes to visit her and Márynka tells him of the misfortunes which befell her family.

A young Czech boy is freed from a concentration camp and now is working for the army against the Germans.

During the Nazi occupation of a Czech city civilians are being rounded up on the slightest of pretexts and shot. One day three high school boys who crack jokes about a recently deceased "hero of the Reich" are pulled out of school by the Gestapo.

This early short by Jaromil Jireš anticipates the formal and stylistic experimentation that would characterize VALERIE AND HER WEEK OF WONDERS.

Ordinary man making his dirty actions in the small town and his coming to the right side.

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No synopsis available yet.

Bernhard works as a warehouse clerk in Munich. After being sentenced to probation for a physical altercation with a right-wing extremist, he could no longer continue his engineering studies. Bernhard meets Johanna. She comes from a well-to-do family; her father is a real-estate developer and her brother is in the diplomatic service. Bernhard wants to share his roots with her, so the two go to Prague, where he lived until the end of the war. But her father disapproves of the trip to the Eastern bloc. When Bernhard finds out that he owes his chance to develop new technology, which led to his career advancement, to his girlfriend’s father, he is upset …

This castle has its own ghost - a mysterious White lady. She emerges from the painting on the wall when someone speaks out magic formula. White lady is good ghost, she can make someone's wishes true. Even if it is a new duct. But a miracle is not the thing that Communist leaders want in the town.

Three separate short stories by Jan Drda from the collection The Dumb Barricade: The Dynamite Watchman, Hatred and Traces.

The drama from the time of the Nazi occupation begins at the train station, where a transport with German soldiers is passing. The train is stopped due to improvised sabotage by one of the railway workers. Resistance liaison Růžena Kubínová is arrested in a random raid. The cynical councilor Dönnert discovers her false documents and has her brutally interrogated. He suspects that she could contribute to exposing the entire group. He puts a informant, Herta, in her cell.

A boy dreams of winning an ice hockey game. Meanwhile, a professional hockey star moves into the neighborhood, offering his services as a goalkeeper--leading two rival teams of Prague schoolboys, The Little Lions and The Devil Street Boys, to fall over themselves in order to gain his favor. The goalie's son, basking in his father's glory, is asked to replace a member of the Lions team, prompting the usual boyish rivalries and battles. Some of the Lions players are so preoccupied with the impending "big game" that their schoolwork suffers, to the chagrin of their teachers and parents.

Four short stories by the greatest Czech satirist Jaroslav Hašek. "Soup for Poor Children" tells the story of how Prince Robert himself cooked soup for poor children, "Meeting of the Municipal Council in Mejdlovary" is the history of filling the position of municipal policeman, "Trampotes of Mr. Tenkrát" shows how strange events lead to marriage and promotion, "Revolt of the Convict Šejba" depicts the victorious fight of the convict Šejba for a dumpling for ministering at mass.

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The first part of the "Hussite Revolutionary Trilogy", completed with Jan Žižka (1955) and Proti všem (Against All Odds, 1957). The film captures the period from May 1412 to the summer of 1415, a turbulent time in the Czech Kingdom, during which there were protests in Prague against the sale of "omnipotent indulgences" whose sale throughout the kingdom was announced by Pope John XXIII. The ideological leader of this movement is the preacher Master Jan Hus, whose words, calling for the elimination of church abuses, are listened to in the Bethlehem Chapel by thousands of ordinary Praguers, Czech lords and Queen Sophie, wife of the Czech King Wenceslas IV.

A biographical film about the famous Czech painter Mikoláš Aleš, portrayed as part of the vanguard of the working class and a spokesman for the oppressed, who asserts himself despite the opposing bourgeoisie and reactionaries of all kinds. The film focuses on the period when Mikoláš Aleš participated in the competition to decorate the National Theatre.

Vladimír Olmer is a student at the Faculty of Medicine. His father, a famous Prague surgeon, is rightly proud of him. One day, Vladimír accidentally meets his former classmate Emil Prokeš. He introduces him to his frivolous friends, who only care about how to earn money for an idle life without any effort. The trusting Vladimír takes a liking to his new friends, especially when the beautiful Helena shows interest in him. Soon, parties with alcohol are more important to Vladimír than his studies. Mirek, his only real friend, warns him in vain. His frivolous life ends with a fateful party at which Emil is shot. The case cannot be covered up, the security services get involved, and Vladimír is expelled from the faculty for a year.

The construction of the new dam deprived the ferryman Ryba of his trade. The new dam replaced the ferry. However, Ryba's ancestors were ferrymen and the old man would have liked his two sons to take up the same profession. But Joseph is an indecisive weakling and Karel found work on the dam. That's why old Ryba drove him out of the house. The persistent rain brings Ryba miserable joy. The man knows well that a sudden flood can endanger the unfinished dam. In his fanatical hatred, he forgets that the water from a broken dam would sweep away his house and his daughter-in-law and sick grandchild in the first place...

The year is 1941 and the German Nazis rule Bohemia with a free hand. Engineer Otakar Racek is an extremely cautious man who tries to avoid problems at all costs. While some of his colleagues are being arrested by the Gestapo, he receives an offer to become the director of a new department. When he refuses to help the wife of an arrested resistance fighter, his wife Vlasta is shaken. However, she loves him, to the point of even resigning herself to the hatred of Otakar's wealthy mother. One day, Vlasta lets her old acquaintance Ondřej Rýdl, who is on the run from the Gestapo, stay at her house for a few days. The wife passes him off to her husband as a distant relative. However, Otakar succumbs to jealousy and, on his mother's advice, hires a private detective to follow Vlasta. However, the detective is also a Gestapo informant and receives a hefty reward for every arrested resistance fighter...

A socialist drama from the time of the February coup. The owner of the brickyard will use several workers before February in order to subvert worker solidarity and continue to do his black business. However, the vigilance of a young, aware worker prevents him from doing so.

After an attack against the guard of the Third Reich, Nazi repression intensifies, and the Czechoslovakian resistance's organized sabotage in an aircraft factory leads to Gestapo shootings.

No synopsis available yet.

A fiction piece centered around the Czech resistance to the Nazis.

A sometimes humorous, sometimes more serious look at the hustle and bustle of a house in Lesser Town with a diverse array of tenants living there, and often petty quarrels that break out between them. Behind the facade of the house in Lesser Town "U dvou slunců" (Two Suns) there is life. The Bavors live here, eternal slaves to the grocery store. The Ebros, who need to marry their daughter off at a good price. The bachelor Dr. Loukota and other interesting Nerudov characters.

The fiddler Valenta has troubled his wife with his drinking and disorderly life. His daughter Rozárka and her younger sisters go to their aunt's in Prague, and their father sets fire to the abandoned house. Rozárka is suspected...

An ambitious and selfish lawyer confesses to the murder of his first wife. Some of the scenes were filmed in the last weeks of the war.

Filmed during the Nazi occupation, this panoramic drama set in a Prague department store follows the divergent destinies of four female coworkers, each of whom seeks happiness in a different way.

The economic crisis affects the lives of many people. Professor Václav Junek gradually discovers how significantly his idealistic vision differs from the real life of his four children. The eldest son Zdeněk has been an unemployed engineer for two years. Daughter Pavla, a doctor, works in a hospital for a very low salary. The second daughter Hanka has left her job as a stenographer and wants to become a film actress...

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The illegitimate child, Marie Růžová, grows up in the family of the Bořický miller. Childhood and youth spend with the son of Bořice, Klement. Klement asserts the rights, becomes a lawyer, and marries Jirina. In order not to cause further contradictions, Mary will go to Prague secretly at night. There he is living heavily as a waitress. He resists the insults of architect Jansky until he ultimately decides to commit suicide in despair.

No synopsis available yet.