Gabriela Pyšná

The most popular Czech comic opera, with a libretto by Karel Sabina, marking the 200th anniversary of the birth of Bedřich Smetana, in the current production of the National Theater in Prague. For more than 150 years, The Bartered Bride has dominated Czech opera. No one else, not even Smetana himself, has managed to surpass its popularity, which over the years has become part of our national DNA, so to speak. At the time of its creation in the 1860s, however, The Bartered Bride was actually quite a bold experiment – Bedřich Smetana and librettist Karel Sabina masterfully mocked all those who imagined "national opera" as an idyllic picture of the Czech countryside, where national virtues reign supreme.

A Czech high diver's Olympic dreams are shattered when she suffers a devastating injury while training. Forced to leave the sport she loves, she follows a photographer friend into the world of nude modeling, ultimately reinventing herself as an adult film actress. Inspired by the true story of diving champion Andrea Absolonová.

Marta decides to take her daughters, Agáta and Mína, leave her toxic husband, and start over. She finds refuge in the house of her father, an eccentric loner who has spent his entire life preparing for the end of the world. Their time together reveals long-suppressed family conflicts, many of them triggered by the husband. When Milan accuses Marta of kidnapping the children, the father drives him away, strengthening the bond with his daughter.

High school teacher Jiří is torn from his solitude and everyday life by an unexpected nighttime visit from his beloved younger sister, former seamstress Růžena. She tells her brother that she has run away from her husband Fanda, a textile merchant, because of his greed and vulgarity. However, Jiří later learns from his other sister, Tylda, that Růžena spent a lot of money and left her husband for a dragoon captain. The captain has now rejected his pregnant lover because he is getting married. Disappointed, Růžena believes that her brother has turned away from her because of her lie, and she decides to take a desperate step...