Jan Hřebejk

Directing

Jan Hřebejk

Born 1967-06-27 · Prague, Czechia

Jan Hřebejk (Czech pronunciation: [ˈjan ˈɦr̝ɛbɛjk]; born 27 June 1967) is a Czech film director and actor. Born in Prague, Hřebejk graduated from high school in 1987 and continued his studies at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU) from 1987 to 1991, majoring in screenplay and dramaturgy. He was at FAMU alongside Petr Jarchovský, who is also his classmate from high school and subsequently a frequent collaborator as a screenwriter. While at FAMU, Hřebejk directed and produced two short films, Co všechno chcete vědět o sexu a bojíte se to prožít (1988) and L. P. 1948 (1989),[1] from scripts written by his classmate Petr Zelenka. His professional directorial debut was a short film for Czech TV, Nedělejte nic, pokud k tomu nemáte vážný důvod (1991), also written by Zelenka. His films caught the attention of viewers and critics, and entered student film festivals. Also while still at FAMU, Hřebejk and Jarchovský wrote a comedy screenplay inspired by Hřebejk's background at a summer camp, entitled Pejme písen dohola. This screenplay was filmed in 1990 as a full-length feature by director Ondřej Trojan. In 1992, Hřebejk filmed a version of his FAMU graduate thesis, an interpretation of Egon Hostovský's Dobrocinny vecírek. This was followed by Big Beat, a rock and roll comedy set in the 1950s and Hřebejk's first major box office success. The film was written by Jarchovský, based on a story by Petr Šabach, and won four Czech Lion awards, including Best Film and Best Director for Hřebejk. In 1996, Hřebejk directed a children's TV series, Kde padají hvezdy, which was syndicated around Europe. The following year, Hřebejk and Jarchovský won awards from the Film and Television Association and the Literary Fund for their contribution to dramatic television programming, for three episodes they wrote for the TV series Bachelors. The writing and production team behind Big Beat subsequently reunited for two further films, Cosy Dens (Czech: Pelíšky; 1999) and Divided We Fall (Czech: Musíme si pomáhat; 2000), both of which became enormously successful within the Czech Republic. His 2009 film Kawasaki's Rose was selected as the Czech entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 83rd Academy Awards, but didn't make the final shortlist.

Acting credits

Behind the camera

Innocence poster
6.2

The fall from the top to the absolute bottom can be very fast. A renowned physician, also a beloved father and husband, is accused of a serious felony. Innocence is hard to prove, especially when in desperation to try to save oneself, we sacrifice the secrets that should have remained hidden forever.

Innocence

2011

Divided We Fall poster
7.2

In 1943, a childless couple, the Čížeks, decide to hide a Jewish refugee, David Wiener, the son of Čížek's former employer, in the secret pantry of their apartment. Čížek is aware of the danger into which he has brought his household and his neighbours, but he takes helping his fellow man in need for granted. But at the same time, as a largely unheroic hero, he is dying of fear. His personal situation is greatly complicated by the approaching end of the war, when he faces danger from both the Germans and his "honest" fellow Czechs...

Divided We Fall

2000

Big Beat poster
5.6

A period musical comedy set in a quiet Prague quarter at the end of the fifties. Using the western plot device of the "man from nowhere" a generation gap story unfolds of changing social climate. The action is driven by the character of a young man named Baby who causes a local rebellion by bringing rock'n'roll to a Communist neighborhood raised on swing.

Big Beat

1993

Shameless poster
4.7

When Oskar, a self-centred TV weatherman, cheats on his wife Zuzana with their au pair, she kicks him to the curb and enlists her in-laws in the search for a new boyfriend.

Shameless

2008

Shameless poster
4.7

When Oskar, a self-centred TV weatherman, cheats on his wife Zuzana with their au pair, she kicks him to the curb and enlists her in-laws in the search for a new boyfriend.

Shameless

2008

Let's All Sing Around poster
5.9

A comedy on a typical children summer camp from the socialist time, telling the truth about it: combination of strange cynical leaders, absent-minded young assistants with complexes, teenage girls desperately in love with them etc. What a pioneer camp pretended to be and what it really was about. All this produces many embarrassing situations.

Let's All Sing Around

1991

Cosy Dens poster
8.0

Two families, Sebkovi and Krausovi, are celebrating Christmas, but not everyone is in a good mood. The teenage kids think that their fathers are totally stupid, and the fathers are sure that their children are nothing more than rebels, hating anything they say.

Cosy Dens

1999

Narozeniny poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Narozeniny

2025

Garden Store - Part 2: Deserter poster
5.7

In 1940s Prague, a former Nazi prisoner returns to run his posh hair salon and struggles with family, the rise of communism and his past.

Garden Store - Part 2: Deserter

2017

I'm All Good poster
5.6

This Hrebejk’s comedy is set in Prague, four years after the democratic “Velvet revolution” of 1989. This was an era of sudden freedom, transition and confusion. Most people got carried away, quickly abandoning the old values and uncritically accepting the new. Some people just took a break…

I'm All Good

2008

Pupendo poster
6.6

Artist Bedřich Mára (Bolek Polivka) is unable to find much secure work due to his public antagonism toward the ruling Communist Party. He has a wife and two children. Life begins to change when art historian Alois Fábera (Jiři Pecha) begins working on a piece about Bedřich, leading to a job offer from a Party official. Things are looking up, until the wrong people hear portions of the historian's writing.

Pupendo

2003

Teddy Bear poster
5.1

Jirka, Roman, and Ivan have been friends since school. Today they are about 35 and, although they went into different fields, their friendship has lasted. Each of the three friends hides a secret, and their lives change radically when the secrets come out. How will the three friends stand up to the tests they are forced to face? Will their friendship survive?

Teddy Bear

2007

The Teacher poster
6.8

The principal of an elementary school calls a special parents meeting after it’s alleged that the seemingly empathetic and kindly-looking teacher Mrs. Drazděchová uses her students to manipulate their parents.

The Teacher

2016

Honeymoon poster
4.3

A wedding is supposed to be a joyous occasion, but things can go awry. When an uninvited guest turns up at the church and later at the reception as well, the newly-weds’ day turns sour. Shadows of the past can blight the most sumptuous of banquets and rend the most affectionate of embraces.

Honeymoon

2013

Up and Down poster
6.7

Milan and Goran are two criminals who smuggle illegal immigrants. One night after they complete a smuggle, they discover that one of the immigrants has left a baby behind. Milan and Goran decide to sell the baby to Lubos and Eman, who are responsible for running an illegal baby adoption center. Lubos and Eman make attempts to sell the baby to Miluska and Frantisek, a barren couple.

Up and Down

2004

The Holy Quaternity poster
4.8

Marital fidelity can wear you down, and Ondra and Vitek are certainly suffering from a case of serious fatigue. Working side by side and living next door to each other, it doesn't take long before these two long-married middle-aged pals start comparing sex notes, and it's plain to see their latest scores have fallen far below what they would have hoped. Luckily, a surprise holiday on a tropical island rekindles their interest in their wives - only they don't exacly lust after their designated partners. With no one to divert their attention, their roaming eyes inevitably settle on the wrong spouse, and pretty soon they've established their own little Holy Quaternity.

The Holy Quaternity

2012

My Freedom poster
NR

30 years of freedom = 30 authors = 30 minutes of films. A unique project of Reflex magazine and Czech Television, which in honor of the 30th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution reflects many forms and understanding of freedom. Various personalities of the Czech cultural sphere have made their minute films.

My Freedom

2019

Beauty in Trouble poster
6.3

Marcela can't bear Jarda any longer, so she threatens divorce and takes the kids to her mom's, whose husband is a creep. While Marcela is there, Jarda is jailed, because he is part of a gang steeling cars and they get caught in the act. Benes, the urbane man whose car got stolen by Jarda and his gang, befriends Marcela. Soon she feels drawn to Benes and all of a sudden she must make up her mind: Jarda is still sexually attractive to her, but Benes offers security, and her own body and mind may not pull at the same strand.

Beauty in Trouble

2006

Česká soda poster
9.0

This sharp Czech soda first appeared on Czech Television screens on June 4, 1993, and for four years it fundamentally changed the concept of Czech television satire and pushed the boundaries of viewer tolerance into completely unprecedented, uncomfortable zones. The feature film summarized the most vivid episodes of the show and still feels like an uncompromising, comprehensive punch to the solar plexus.

Česká soda

1998

Garden Store - Part 1: Family Friend poster
4.7

Sisters whose husbands were arrested by the Gestapo struggle to get by with their children during WWII, while one grows close to a selfless doctor.

Garden Store - Part 1: Family Friend

2017

Kawasaki's Rose poster
5.2

Loyalty, history and regret take center stage for university professor Pavel Josek, lauded for standing up to the communist regime when it counted most. But as a TV documentary starts to focus in on the facts of his past, new truths are uncovered which may threaten his reputation.

Kawasaki's Rose

2009

Garden Store: Suitor poster
4.1

In late-1950s Czechoslovakia, a young couple's new love is tested by their parents' expectations and the toll of the Communist regime.

Garden Store: Suitor

2017

Trap poster
NR

A counselor in the summer camp suddenly finds herself loosing the bikini top while bathing in the lake. And all the teenagers around get excited...

Trap

1997

Garbage, the City and Death poster
2.7

Romi, a prostitute, is anything but successful at her job: she is of far too gentle a nature for her clients. The more obstinately she is pushed to the streets by her pimp Franz, the closer she is to a complete breakdown. One day Romi is addressed by a property speculator referring to himself as a "wealthy Jew". He does not demand any sexual services of her. He satisfies himself with Romi telling him stories, for which he lavishly rewards her. However, no one shares the sudden happiness with Romi. Her workmates and current clients turn their backs on her, as does Franz, with whom Romi is in love. The whole story takes place in the setting of a dilapidated city, during the clean-up of which politicians openly split their profit with speculators and lobbyists, all under protection from the police.

Garbage, the City and Death

2012