Vilém Besser

Acting

Vilém Besser

Born 1930-12-02 · Krocehlavy by Kladno, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic]

Acting credits

Marathon poster
5.6

It is 5 May 1945 and the uprising against the hated German occupiers has broken out in Prague. The Czech guards open the gate of the Pankrác prison to allow the prisoners to escape en masse. Many of them are shot dead by the German guards but young Ruda (Jaromír Hanzlík) manages to run away. He is taken care of by one of the Prague fighters, concierge Kytka. Kytka hides him in the flat of the house's owner where only the young maid Karla (Jana Brejchová) is left, ordering her to take care of Ruda.

Marathon

1968

On the Great River poster
8.0

Second movie of the famous Czech adventure trilogy: Osada Havranů Na veliké rece Volání rodu

On the Great River

1978

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Kukačky

1974

The Secret of Steel City poster
5.9

The film is a metaphor for the Cold War. It depicts two neighbouring nations: peace loving Fortuna and the not so peaceful land of the Steel City.

The Secret of Steel City

1979

Konec cesty poster
7.3

Josef Lachman, once a security officer, serves twelve years for aiding an SS fugitive’s escape. Upon release, he works as a driver on a dam project, hunting buried English pounds Meyer told him about. With miner Rokos’s help, he retrieves the cash and hides it with his daughter Eva, but she spends some at Tuzex, Rokos blackmails him, and they discover the notes are WWII forgeries.

Konec cesty

1960

Jan Hus poster
6.3

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.

Jan Hus

1955

Romaneto poster
7.0

A frightening atmosphere, full of chilling dampness and darkness, follows the fate of a desperate searcher who tries in vain to unravel the supposed secret of the altarpiece...

Romaneto

1981

The Borstal poster
NR

The story takes place during the 1960s. A young teacher takes on the role of a tutor in a Prague youth protection institution. Filming was stopped in 1968 and the final editing of the footage was not done until early 1989.

The Borstal

1969

The Valley of the Bees poster
7.0

Cast out by his father, young Ondrej joins the Order of the Teutonic Knights, where he is raised by strict monk Armin. After years of hardship, Ondrej escapes from the Order when he is wrongly punished, and sets out for his former home. Arriving to discover his father to be dead, Ondrej now not only assumes control of his father's properties, but seeks to marry his former stepmother.

The Valley of the Bees

1968

No artwork available
7.0

No synopsis available yet.

Kůzlátka otevřete...

1965

Death of Hitch-Hikers poster
5.3

Maniac, a driver, sits on the track women, which then rape and kill. For loved ones, he is an ordinary person who has a wife and child. When exposed, he does not stop before killing his wife and takes his son hostage, under the guise of which he is trying to escape abroad.

Death of Hitch-Hikers

1979

Zkouška pokračuje poster
5.0

As a young actor František Lukávec and his teacher Vladimir Tuma became enemies. František insisted that Tuma was dismissed from the school as a reactionary and hostile to the new government. Many years passed, and here they met again on the stage of a theater. František is assigned the role of Julius Fucik, Tuma plays the role of a Gestapo man in the same play. In the course of the action, the Gestapo man beats Fucik. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Tuma beats up his old enemy during the dress rehearsal. Frantisek's face is bleeding, but he will still play. The rehearsal continues...

Zkouška pokračuje

1960

No artwork available
NR

The charming Indian girl Madeline is the wife of the gold digger Charlie, called the King. While they were in the wilderness, his wife was very suitable for him. But now he is selling the land and wants to run a big house. So he needs a woman to represent him. His favorite becomes Freda, a girl from the local dance hall. Madeline is taken in by the Malemute Kid, Jack Harrington and Stanley Perry, who give her lessons in singing, dancing and social behavior. Madeline soon surpasses "her rivals" with her natural intelligence and charm...

Králova žena

1978

Jan Žižka poster
7.3

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

Jan Žižka

1956

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Madame Sans-Gène

1972

The Case of Dead Schoolmates poster
10.0

A West German businessman Friedrich Schmidt is arriving to Czechoslovakia with private mission and mission for Intelligence service. He wants to settle the old event from the time of the Second World War when he as a student of the Czech grammar school in the town of Kostelec took part at the denunciation of his schoolmate Pavel Richter. Pavel was during the period of Nazi terror following the assassination of Acting Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia Heydrich executed. Schmidt has also to enter into relations with persons suitable for cooperation with the West Intelligence service. Schmidt - earlier, before the German occupation Smíd - meets the schoolmates and endeavors to avert suspicion that arose already at the time of the tragic event.

The Case of Dead Schoolmates

1977

No artwork available
2.0

No synopsis available yet.

Muž v pralese

1971

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Parcela 60, katastr Lukovice

1983

Levé křídlo poster
4.0

The war will also affect children's games. The children hide a French boy who has managed to escape from a prison transport. Language differences certainly don't matter when sporting talent is on display. The refugee becomes a welcome addition to the schoolboy football team, which is about to play against the German soldiers.

Levé křídlo

1984

Trasa poster
7.0

Experiences of a Tatra factory driver during demanding load tests of Tatra 148 trucks in extremely harsh climatic conditions during the construction of the Nizhnevartovsk oil pipeline.

Trasa

1979

Paragraf 224 poster
8.0

Placek (Josef Kemr), the head of research in a chemical plant, appreciates the help of his younger colleague Bernát (Alois Svehlík) in the creation of a new synthetic material.

Paragraf 224

1980

Cuckoo in a Dark Forest poster
4.9

Set in World War 2 as the Germans occupy Czechoslovakia, teenage Emilka's father is murdered by the Nazis, but she is selected for special treatment by virtue of being blonde. She is billeted with the commandant of a concentration camp near the Baltic coast, where his kindness towards her provokes his wife's jealousy, but is compromised when Emilka witnesses his brutality towards the prisoners.

Cuckoo in a Dark Forest

1985

Kronika žhavého léta poster
6.5

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 figures—steadfast party activists, wary peasants, and obstructive reactionaries—whose clashes illustrate the claimed inevitability of working-class victory under communist leadership.

Kronika žhavého léta

1973

Settlement of Crows poster
7.2

First movie of the famous Czech adventure trilogy: Osada Havranů Na veliké rece Volání rodu, based on the works of Eduard Štorch and directed by Jan Schmidt. Each of the films is a completely separate and self-contained story, although they are all connected by some characters and, of course, by time - five thousand years ago. The story of the Ravenpiercer, a young hero from the Stone Age, is shrouded in mystery - for he was brought there by a swollen river. He was fished out of the waves by a young hunter, Sokol, and adopted by the Raven village. The fate of the boy from his childhood through his desire to become a hunter, through the many disappointments that await him among the adults, to the founding of a new family - this is the plot thread connecting the individual parts.

Settlement of Crows

1978