Directing

Ivan Pokorný

Born 1952-12-12

Ivan Pokorný (born in 1952 in the Czech Republic) is an actor. He graduated in Acting from the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Fine Arts and in 1976-1983 and worked as an actor in various Czech theatres. He also had several roles in film and on television. In 1983 he emigrated to Austria, worked as a lecturer at the Vienna Conservatory and in 1984-1998 as a director in Austrian and German theatres. In 1995 he decided to return to the Czech Republic and has been working mainly as a director of TV-films since then. He also makes documentaries and is particularly interested in themes connected with the cultural history of his country. In some projects he takes part as a producer or co-producer.

Acting credits

Amadeus poster
8.0

Disciplined Italian composer Antonio Salieri becomes consumed by jealousy and resentment towards the hedonistic and remarkably talented young Salzburger composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Amadeus

1984

Cold Sunday poster
5.5

A seemingly harmless fit of jealousy between two lovers brings about an increasingly sinister entanglement of events. Hidden secrets are revealed, sly lies are decoded, and eventually the characters begin to show their true colors. In this thriller, gripping until the last minute, nothing is as it appears to be at first sight

Cold Sunday

2012

The Three Veterans poster
7.8

It is a story of three veterans released from the army. During one night spent camping in the country they one by one wake up and meet three elvish brothers. Each of the veterans is given a magic item - one gets magic harp that provides him with servants by wish, other one endless pouch of gold and the last one owns magic hat that can create all the staff excluding money and people.

The Three Veterans

1984

Joachim, Put It in the Machine poster
7.3

A sincere provincial young man, Frantisek Koudelka leaves to work in Prague. For the trip he buys a computer made horoscope with biorhythms charts, marked according to his date of birth, there are trappy, precarious, unsuccessful and even critical days and few successful days. The clumsy luckless person Frantisek has finally a guidance for his life.

Joachim, Put It in the Machine

1974

The Medal poster
7.0

The trenches of World War I provide for a captivating backdrop to the drama of Corporal Hoferik. In his devotion to the Habsburg Monarchy, he fanatically carries out his military orders, but he ultimately suffers the Empire's disfavor.

The Medal

1980

Bulldogs and Cherries poster
4.3

The dreaded Italian mafioso, Marian Labuda, will also be convinced. Mafioso Carmello was guilty of the principles of his organization when he tried to fool the boss and earned a death sentence. The convict runs away from the killer through Vienna to Prague, which his Austrian colleague in crime recommended as a safe hiding place. None of them knows that the Czechs learned so much tricks under real socialism that a seasoned Italian professional is not enough to watch.

Bulldogs and Cherries

1981

Hotel Pacific poster
7.3

Set in the early 1930s, a young man finds a job as a dishwasher in a hotel and quickly works his way up the ladder. Loosely based on the novel by Henryk Worcell.

Hotel Pacific

1975

No artwork available
2.0

No synopsis available yet.

Hadrián z Římsů

1980

Run, Waiter, Run! poster
7.1

A comedy concerning a down on his luck bookshop owner with a penchant for women who decides to make some money by pretending to be a waiter and collecting cash from unsuspecting diners.

Run, Waiter, Run!

1981

God's Sin poster
7.0

Hrích boha (God's Sin) is Agnieszka Holland's poetic vision of the world as a trap, based on the novel by Isaak Babel.

God's Sin

1970

Konečná stanice poster
6.7

The story takes place in a retirement home and creates a mosaic of the lives of old people who are trying to find a relationship with themselves and with life in these specific conditions. Each of its residents has a distinctive approach to life and its basic values. The most interesting features of the title, which is marked by a visibly cold production approach, are the worthy performances of the actors of the older generation. Some of them appeared in front of the camera after many years and unfortunately for the last time.

Konečná stanice

1982

Concert poster
10.0

Rock concerts used to be suspicious. They were supposed to attract all sorts of strange individuals who meant no good. In this case, it's a pair of escaped convicts who want to hide in the heat of the concert...

Concert

1981

No artwork available
2.7

No synopsis available yet.

Pomsta

1971

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Dlouhý podzimní den

1971

Monstrum poster
3.0

No synopsis available yet.

Monstrum

2017

No artwork available
8.7

No synopsis available yet.

Polojasno

1999

Sugar House poster
7.0

In the final days of the Second World War in 1945 Frantisek Pribyl is killed during a shoot-out with the Germans. After the funeral, the widow (Jana Svandová) and her two young sons Martin and Ondra move to her deceased husband's native village at the foot of the Kralický Snezník mountains. Life in the borderlands is far from easy for the lonely woman. The village is almost deserted, food supplies are delayed; the Werwolf (Nazi guerrilla squads) are hiding in the mountains, and shooting is heard from time to time. The elder son Ondra (Michal Dlouhý) is helping out his mother and at the same time absorbing intense new experiences. He meets an old Czech resident Skurek (Lubomír Kostelka), German women working in the forest, soldiers from the engineering units removing the mines, and a young first lieutenant. At night he dreams about his dead father whom he loved very much. This is why he runs away from home when he finds out that the lieutenant is courting his mother.

Sugar House

1981

Lost in Paradise poster
3.0

Evžen lives a bohemian life in Prague. An unexpected trip back to his homeland Switzerland confronts him with the smuggled crocodile Karlchen, his father’s sustained delusion and the grotesque charm of the bourgeoisie.

Lost in Paradise

2021

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Oddělení zvláštní péče

1980

Kidnapped Home poster
5.3

Libor is a teenager who, in a matter of minutes, finds himself transported from the exclusive world of today's wealthy elite, with its opulent villas, snobbish parties, expensive private schools, and chauffeur-driven cars, into a situation where he must fight for his life. There is no turning back from the path he embarks on. He loses everything, even his own name, but what he stands to gain is so appealing to him that he does not hesitate to take the risk.

Kidnapped Home

2002

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Don Juan

1973

A Valley of Beautiful Frogs poster
9.0

A fifteen years old Jana escapes summer camp wearing nothing but bikini...

A Valley of Beautiful Frogs

1974

Behind the camera

Cold Sunday poster
5.5

A seemingly harmless fit of jealousy between two lovers brings about an increasingly sinister entanglement of events. Hidden secrets are revealed, sly lies are decoded, and eventually the characters begin to show their true colors. In this thriller, gripping until the last minute, nothing is as it appears to be at first sight

Cold Sunday

2012

Cold Sunday poster
5.5

A seemingly harmless fit of jealousy between two lovers brings about an increasingly sinister entanglement of events. Hidden secrets are revealed, sly lies are decoded, and eventually the characters begin to show their true colors. In this thriller, gripping until the last minute, nothing is as it appears to be at first sight

Cold Sunday

2012

Scent of Oranges poster
4.0

In love with a girl that smells of oranges while in a complicated relationship with his father, Darek is gentle, strong and devoted to his little sister and their herd of horses. Darek's world is a story about the joy and pain of growing up in the isolated yet beautiful Lusatian Mountains. Here, horses are not expensive specimens of racing stables but beings you should care for and love. Not even that is enough in life though, as Darek finds out nearing the Summer's end, closing his childhood definitely. However, just like any ending, this is a start of something new.

Scent of Oranges

2019

Smrt pedofila poster
4.0

In a Czech school friendship grows between a teacher and a student. The friendship turns into an intimate relationship. Till the student begin to blackmail the teacher.

Smrt pedofila

2004

Slíbená princezna poster
5.0

A modern fairy tale with an adventure story takes the viewer to an exotic island where lives a king who has twelve daughters. The youngest of them is courted by the dangerous pirate Za Bié Ocradé and the orphan George, who has been entrusted with this task by his master Prince Honorad. George falls in love with the beautiful princess and must struggle with his conscience to decide whether he prefers love or obedience.

Slíbená princezna

2016

No artwork available
NR

A Gogolian grotesque with elements of Italian neorealism underscored by Janáček's four-part harmonies. The Divadlo v Dlouhé theater consciously renounced folkloric color and psychological insight into the souls of individual characters and focused primarily on a comedic view of everyday Czech life, in which vanity and personal interests often play a key role. Director Jan Borna based his production on Miroslav Macháček's famous adaptation, which, however, underwent minor changes in the staging by the actors of the Divadlo v Dlouhé theater.

Naši furianti

2012

No artwork available
10.0

A dramatic contemporary story with elements of a political thriller and a strong ethical message. On a foggy, smoggy winter day, a group of terrorists hijacks a Prague bus with four passengers and the driver. They declare that they will hold the hostages until the government and parliament meet their demand to change the air pollution law. The drama of the hostages lasts one night and two days, during which a series of dramatic situations unfold. The plot takes us into the attractive world of high politics and the homes of ordinary people who are directly affected by the hijacking. Gradually, the film's fundamental question comes to the fore: Is it possible to resort to extreme measures, i.e., violence, in order to achieve environmental goals? Is it possible to achieve a cause that benefits everyone through terrorism?

Město bez dechu

2003

Kidnapped Home poster
5.3

Libor is a teenager who, in a matter of minutes, finds himself transported from the exclusive world of today's wealthy elite, with its opulent villas, snobbish parties, expensive private schools, and chauffeur-driven cars, into a situation where he must fight for his life. There is no turning back from the path he embarks on. He loses everything, even his own name, but what he stands to gain is so appealing to him that he does not hesitate to take the risk.

Kidnapped Home

2002

Černá díra poster
6.5

A recording of a theater performance by the Dejvické Theater. At a half-forgotten gas station somewhere in the American Midwest, a dog has died. And yet something extraordinary is happening here. People who enter this place find themselves caught in a space-time loop from which they cannot escape...

Černá díra

2011

No artwork available
10.0

The story of a divorced couple whose "bond," whether pleasant or not for both former partners, remains their teenage son. Problems with him, or rather with his passion for graffiti, as well as a series of unexpected life paradoxes, including one sweet secret, force both former spouses to act against all conventions and surprise not only those around them, but also themselves.

Naše děti

2001

Ghetto No. 1 poster
NR

Ghetto No. 1 is Chanov. Chanov is a Roma ghetto. It is synonymous with helplessness, powerlessness, a mixture of hypocrisy and well-intentioned efforts to solve the so-called Roma question. Chanov, our nightmare, our remorse, our guilty conscience. But also narrow-mindedness, aggression, hopelessness. If someone says they live in Chanov, they are automatically placed at the bottom of the social ladder. It is an indelible stigma. Chanov is a very hot spot – a place with above-average crime rates, 95% unemployment, and nearly $80 million in rent debt. The images that Chanov offers speak for themselves. In the film, I do not want to accuse anyone (to be honest, I don't know whom), nor do I offer enlightened solutions (I doubt that any exist). The purpose of the documentary is to look behind and allow others to look behind an invisible but painfully tangible border in the heart of a borderless Europe.

Ghetto No. 1

2007

Ghetto No. 1 poster
NR

Ghetto No. 1 is Chanov. Chanov is a Roma ghetto. It is synonymous with helplessness, powerlessness, a mixture of hypocrisy and well-intentioned efforts to solve the so-called Roma question. Chanov, our nightmare, our remorse, our guilty conscience. But also narrow-mindedness, aggression, hopelessness. If someone says they live in Chanov, they are automatically placed at the bottom of the social ladder. It is an indelible stigma. Chanov is a very hot spot – a place with above-average crime rates, 95% unemployment, and nearly $80 million in rent debt. The images that Chanov offers speak for themselves. In the film, I do not want to accuse anyone (to be honest, I don't know whom), nor do I offer enlightened solutions (I doubt that any exist). The purpose of the documentary is to look behind and allow others to look behind an invisible but painfully tangible border in the heart of a borderless Europe.

Ghetto No. 1

2007