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.

No synopsis available yet.

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.

No synopsis available yet.

No synopsis available yet.

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...

No synopsis available yet.

No synopsis available yet.

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.

No synopsis available yet.

The dramatic story of Karel Svozil, an aging professor of art history, tells of love and old age, illness, death and the worries of everyday life with a humorous touch. A diagnosis of a cancerous tumour unexpectedly interferes with the life of the wise and sophisticated man and his love affair with the much younger Alena, leading him to contemplate suicide. However, the gloomy thoughts are soon replaced by feverish activity, with which Professor Svozil tries to make the most of his remaining time. He finishes his book, marries his mistress, and openly speaks out against his superior. However, an accident radically changes the whole situation.

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

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.

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.

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.

No synopsis available yet.

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.

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.

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.

No synopsis available yet.

Doctor Adéla Neradová, a medical doctor, has succumbed to the desire to uncover a criminal and become a kind of Sherlock Holmes in skirts. The thankless role of her Dr. Watson has fallen to her husband Peter, a professional photographer who helps her with the cases she gets involved in, but usually gets everything mixed up.

No synopsis available yet.

No synopsis available yet.

No synopsis available yet.

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...

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.

No synopsis available yet.

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.

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

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 …

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.

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

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

No synopsis available yet.

No synopsis available yet.

No synopsis available yet.

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

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.

No synopsis available yet.

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.

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.

The second part of the revolutionary Hussite trilogy takes place in the years 1419-1420.

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.

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.

No synopsis available yet.

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.

Orphan Jirka lives alone with his grandfather by the river. He spends all his free time by the water and does not grow up with the other children. His biggest dream is to catch a big pike, which he knows that he can't do without friends. ► International Film Festival of Documentary and Experimental Films Montevideo - 1956 - 1st Main Prize (Distributor's Official Text)

The story of a friendship for life and death captures a real event that took place in the snowy Krkonoše Mountains in 1913. The actors of the drama were Bohumil Hanč, one of our first ski racers, and his friend Václav Vrbata. The film's plot takes place between 1912 and 1913 and is framed by two international 50 km races. After winning in 1912, Bohumil Hanč wants to stop racing at the behest of his wife Slávka. In 1913, strong foreign competitors enter the race, so Bohumil succumbs to the pleas of his friends and decides to race for the last time. However, the weather changes during the race. Strong winds and snow begin to blow, severe frost sets in, and for the racers, it means a fight for their lives.

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.

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.

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

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 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.

In a country whose people have just been successfully persuaded of their superiority and the justification for military expansion by the fiery speeches of a dictator, the bacillus of a highly destructive form of leprosy has spread. It is called morbus Tshengi, or popularly „white disease“. The only one who has developed an effective cure for it is a physician of the poor named Galén. But he refuses to reveal the secret of his cure as long as the powerful destroy human lives through wars.

No synopsis available yet.

No synopsis available yet.

The smooth narration, corresponding to the requirements of a light comedy, develops the smiling and optimistic story of the "one-armed" beggar Dostál, who earned enough money with his excellent begging skills to buy a nice house, become a respectable master of the house, and save the impoverished lawyer Neprosil from poverty, who he contributed regularly to him when he was still well off. He also wanted to get him together with his pretty ward Zorka, for whom he said he would be an ideal husband, but the young people were able to do that by themselves and without his clumsy help, or rather despite his rather ineffective help... The film was shown at the VI. IFF in Venice in 1938.