Writing

Ota Hofman

Born — Died

1928-04-10 — 1989-05-17

Place of birth

Prague, Czechoslovakia

Known for

Writing

Credits

42 titles

Known for

Beauty and the Beast poster
7.5

Julie, the youngest daughter of a bankrupt merchant, sacrifices her life in order to save her father. She goes to an enchanted castle in the woods and meets Netvor, a bird-like monster. As Netvor begins to fall in love with Julie, he must suppress his beastly urge to kill her.

Beauty and the Beast

1979

The Third Prince poster
6.1

Brave sons of the king, twin brothers Jaroslav and Jaromír love and help each other. It was they and another brother - Jindrich, who once saw the portrait of Princess of Diamond Mountains, fell in love and went on her quest.

The Third Prince

1983

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

TV Intim

1969

The Last Butterfly poster
5.8

Stage mime Antoine Moreau is compelled by the Gestapo to put on a performance for the children of Terezin, a "model" concentration camp, to convince the Red Cross observers that the camp is truly what it seems. Reluctant at first, Moreau slowly learns the true nature of the camp, including the meaning of the "transports" on which people leave. With a world-class orchestra (made up of people interned in the camp) and a cast of children, Moreau stages a show to end all shows.

The Last Butterfly

1991

No artwork available
7.5

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...

Králíci ve vysoké trávě

1962

Pohádka o staré tramvaji poster
7.0

Frantík arrives in Prague for the holidays and discovers an abandoned tram named Terezka. With local children, he secretly paints and hides it to prevent scrapping, then organizes a scrap-metal collection to raise funds for its restoration.

Pohádka o staré tramvaji

1962

Film credits

Series credits

Behind the camera

Beauty and the Beast poster
7.5

Julie, the youngest daughter of a bankrupt merchant, sacrifices her life in order to save her father. She goes to an enchanted castle in the woods and meets Netvor, a bird-like monster. As Netvor begins to fall in love with Julie, he must suppress his beastly urge to kill her.

Beauty and the Beast

1979

The Third Prince poster
6.1

Brave sons of the king, twin brothers Jaroslav and Jaromír love and help each other. It was they and another brother - Jindrich, who once saw the portrait of Princess of Diamond Mountains, fell in love and went on her quest.

The Third Prince

1983

The Last Butterfly poster
5.8

Stage mime Antoine Moreau is compelled by the Gestapo to put on a performance for the children of Terezin, a "model" concentration camp, to convince the Red Cross observers that the camp is truly what it seems. Reluctant at first, Moreau slowly learns the true nature of the camp, including the meaning of the "transports" on which people leave. With a world-class orchestra (made up of people interned in the camp) and a cast of children, Moreau stages a show to end all shows.

The Last Butterfly

1991

No artwork available
7.5

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...

Králíci ve vysoké trávě

1962

Pohádka o staré tramvaji poster
7.0

Frantík arrives in Prague for the holidays and discovers an abandoned tram named Terezka. With local children, he secretly paints and hides it to prevent scrapping, then organizes a scrap-metal collection to raise funds for its restoration.

Pohádka o staré tramvaji

1962

Pan Tau – der Film poster
6.4

Pan Tau, the friend of all children, now also helps the adults. A movie producer is in trouble and decides to shoot another Pan-Tau movie. But the old Pan-Tau actor Karasek is no longer young enough to walk the almost weightless walk of Pan Tau. Mr. Novak turns up - he resembles Pan Tau like a twin brother. He succeeds every pirouette. And as if by magic, he solves all the problems between people! Who is Mr. Novak? Is he really ...?

Pan Tau – der Film

1988

The Little Mermaid poster
6.8

The little mermaid rescues a prince from drowning and falls in love with him. To be with him, she makes a deal with the evil sorceress: her beautiful voice against a life on land.

The Little Mermaid

1976

The Cat Prince poster
6.8

The castle custodian Král is moving to a new place of work with his wife, son Radek and a five - years old daughter Terezka. Radek takes his cat Líza with him. A fully loaded truck moves through the country which is in spring blossoms, gradually changing into a snow-covered land. Children's imagination creates from real experiences magic stories - a fairy-tale grandpa takes them to a new castle, the children fear a black-horse rider who - as the grandpa and the cleaning lady assert she hates cats.

The Cat Prince

1979

Six O'Clock at the Airport poster
8.5

The nine-year-old Prague boy Pepiček flies to Moscow as an involuntary stowaway on an airplane. Together with the Soviet pioneer Mischa, he pursues an alleged agent in the hustle and bustle of the World Festival and is flown back to Prague in the evening.

Six O'Clock at the Airport

1958

...and again that Lucy! poster
6.7

A second part of a funny adventures of six years old Lucie and her two magic dolls.

...and again that Lucy!

1984

Der Weihnachtsmann heißt Willi poster
6.0

Five-year-old Peter and his older brother Hans drop the Christmas present for their parents in the middle of the road and it gets flattened by a car. Deeply distressed, they go to a Christmas fair and buy a lottery ticket with their remaining money. To their delight, they win a washing machine! Peter is especially excited when Santa Claus shows up and promises to transport the machine for him, but the old man instead vanishes with the boys' gift. Hans is convinced that Peter has been conned and chases after the fleeing Santa. But Peter simply cannot believe that Santa Claus could be anything other than kind and helpful.

Der Weihnachtsmann heißt Willi

1969

Lucy, the Menace of Street poster
7.3

A first part of a funny adventures of six years old Lucie and her two magic dolls.

Lucy, the Menace of Street

1984

Prázdniny v oblacích poster
10.0

In the beginning, the book of Bohumil Říha was about the aircraft of Kaneti. Both the book and the film that came out of it tell about children's parties spending their holidays near the sports airport. The newly scanned airplane first assigns to aliens, then suspects them of espionage, but in the end it will explain everything. Children will even find the courage to take part in an aviation trip. According to period reviews, the film was a bad thing to teachers, as they said it was inappropriate.

Prázdniny v oblacích

1960

Martin a červené sklíčko poster
7.0

Children's detective stories were very successful in the 1960s, and the stories of Martin the criminal even had several sequels. In this film, Martin investigates a mysterious ancient crime in a castle where today the guide mentions this fact only as a curiosity. He is led to this by a broken display case on which he finds a child's handprints. And in a seemingly mundane red slide, easily mistaken for a rare diamond, he finds an important clue...

Martin a červené sklíčko

1967

Vlak do stanice Nebe poster
7.3

The last winter of the Second World War in the Beskids. To escape the bombing, eight-year-old Dagmar is taken by her mother from Prague to a mountain village. From there, they take the narrow-gauge railroad to school...

Vlak do stanice Nebe

1972

The Girl Robinson Crusoe poster
5.7

A thirteen-year-old girl whose mother suddenly dies during the birth of her second child is forced to start taking care not only of herself, but also of her father and newborn brother.

The Girl Robinson Crusoe

1957

No artwork available
7.9

Little Honzík tries everything he can in order to join the team for Spartakiada Games.

Magical Day

1961

The Hour of Blue Elephants poster
7.5

Two days before Christmas. Zuzanka and Tomás, friends from a kindergarten wander off during a walk. They admire toys and decoration in shop-windows. Zuzanka shall receive a sledge as a Christmas present and Tomás even a desired little brother. At a shooting gallery Tomás aims at a target on the trunk of a blue elephant which can call in Christmas. The impatient Zuzanka pushes to her friend and he shoots directly to the elephant's red eye. Things which the owner of the shooting gallery warned about happened: the sun popped on the sky, the snow melted and all Christmas shopping has stopped. Both pushful children decide to get a new eye for the elephant so that everything can be set right.

The Hour of Blue Elephants

1971

Martin Speaking poster
7.0

The second installment of children's stories investigator Dr. Martin. The film has two stories:

Martin Speaking

1966

No artwork available
6.5

Together with a group of temporary workers, a group of experienced labourers is building a land reclamation system to turn the South Bohemian marshes into a "Seventh Continent" of fertile soil.

Sedmý kontinent

1961

Merry Christmas Octopus poster
6.8

Eva and her younger brother Johnny own two sentient octopuses made out of strange matter. Will their parents divorce and ruin Christmas? Will a scientist find a way to use their pets as fuel? Live action film with stop-motion octopuses.

Merry Christmas Octopus

1987

No artwork available
6.5

Captain Martin from the police's child department and his colleague Kraus are called to Znojmo to help solve a case regarding stolen toys found in the town's subterranean passages. The members of the local police department are convinced that the thieves are the well-known "customers" from the Znojmo elementary school, pupils Exner and Mandlík. Martin, however, has doubts about these culprits. These doubts grow even stronger after the local self-service shop is robbed and the local tobacco store reports that it is missing a lot of imported cigarettes. Martin questions the children, inspects both shops and searches through the underground.

Martin and Nine Fools

1966

Zpívající pudřenka poster
6.2

A children's adventure spy film from a time when the radio telephone was science fiction.

Zpívající pudřenka

1960

No artwork available
7.5

The journey of the Třeboň paddlers to the gold medal at the Olympic Games in Helsinki (1952).

Neklidnou hladinou

1963

Malé letní blues poster
7.0

A holiday story about first tentative love, set in a romantic cottage village on the banks of a river. There, a 15-year-old girl feels lonely and confused, bitterly reliving her hopes and disappointments...

Malé letní blues

1968

Proměny nože poster
NR

A young waitress, Dana, works in a roadside motel. She longs for the big, distant world, for beautiful things, and perhaps even for love. But her life is filled with various short-term relationships, her lover is a passing truck driver, a rich, elderly stranger, and random acquaintances who give her gifts. The girl does nothing to fulfill her dreams. Coincidence brings a group of students to the motel, and one of them, Martin, takes a liking to the waitress. A relationship develops that could perhaps lead to sincere love, to the fulfillment of her wish for a new life...

Proměny nože

1970

The Octopuses from the Second Floor poster
6.6

While on vacation with their bickering parents, young Eva and her little brother Johnny find in a polluted lake two strange friendly sentient octopuses made of strange material that attracts electricity. They take them as pets.

The Octopuses from the Second Floor

1987

Katya and the Crocodile poster
7.3

It is the summer holiday and little Mísa Horák has taken a few animals from the school's so-called "Corner of Living Nature" home to care for. But when he brings home two Angora rabbits, a starling, a little monkey, a tortoise and a small crocodile, his parents order him to take them away. He is helped by Káta, who offers to place the animals in the child's room of her family's apartment. Mísa leaves for her friend where the animals will hopefully be able to stay. Káta goes shopping. In the meantime, Káta's younger sister Minka wakes up and begins to play with the animals, who gradually run off in disarray.

Katya and the Crocodile

1966

Clown Ferdinand and the Rocket poster
6.0

When Clown Ferdinand enters an abandoned city in his wagon he ends up on a space rocket where he meets a robot that can turn invisible. This film reuses sets from Polák's Ikarie XB 1 (1963).

Clown Ferdinand and the Rocket

1963

Anička jde do školy poster
9.0

Six-year-old Anička Čejková has moved with her parents from the village to a new housing estate in Prague. For now, she and her father are alone, but her mother is due to return from the hospital soon with her newborn Ondřej. Anička gets lost during her first walk around the neighborhood, but a nice young woman helps her. She is teacher Řeháková, in whose class 1. And soon Anička will start. The first-graders like the school, and when Anička confides in them that her mother will be back soon, they decide to give her a festive welcome.

Anička jde do školy

1962

The Goalkeeper Lives On Our Street poster
6.0

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.

The Goalkeeper Lives On Our Street

1957

No artwork available
5.0

A story about the conditions in Bohemia in the second half of the nineteenth century, when small-town officials, such as Hrdlička, succumbed to the predators of the emerging large financial and industrial bourgeoisie, represented by Jestřáb.

Jestřáb kontra Hrdlička

1953

Punta and the Four-Leaf Clover poster
6.0

A film about a boy who is protective of a runaway dog and the dog, who is protective of the boy.

Punta and the Four-Leaf Clover

1955

Jahrgang 21 poster
7.0

At the beginning of the Second World War, Czech music student Honsik comes to Germany from Prague to join a "foreign worker company". After rescuing a boy from the rubble of a bombed-out house, he himself is seriously injured and taken to a hospital in Stralsund. There he is regarded as a second-class citizen and the Germans are preferred to him. Nurse Käthe stands up for him, cares for him and defies all prohibitions. A love affair is kindled between the two, but it is not under a good star. Honsik tries to flee to his homeland with his comrades and Käthe supports him. At the last moment, however, Honsik realizes that his love for Käthe is stronger than his homesickness and makes his way back. Once back home, he can only watch as Käthe is arrested by the Gestapo. With the help of a resistance fighter, the young man from Prague manages to escape after all.

Jahrgang 21

1958

Volejte Martina poster
6.7

The series of children's films about Detective Martin, who intervenes in cases involving children, begins with this film. It consists of two short stories: in the first ("Three Bottles"), the young hero, escaping from an orphanage, gets involved in a robbery of postage stamps..., in the second ("Flying Carousel"), the children fight a dishonest owner of fairground rides...

Volejte Martina

1966

Sny na neděli poster
10.0

In the pulmonary sanatorium, patients live out their small fates. But not everyone takes a responsible approach to their illness. For example, a young student falls in love, the lovers even take a secret flight, but the young man's condition deteriorates dramatically because of it.

Sny na neděli

1959

No Magic from Tomorrow poster
7.6

Mr. Tau, the quiet and kind magician with a bowler hat and an umbrella, shows up unexpectedly on the wings of a plane during flight. The terrified crew contact the airport security service. After the plane lands, Mr. Tau disappears. The third security inspector Málek is determined to catch the hooligan at any price. To achieve this, he gives up his holiday to visit the children's summer camp. Mr. Málek's son, who just like all the other children is delighted by the new camp cook, Mr. Tau himself, has unknowingly set the inspector on the magician's trail. But the children at the camp are determined not to let their beloved magician get caught and ingeniously place all sorts of traps in Inspector Málek's way.

No Magic from Tomorrow

1979

Lucie and the Miracles poster
4.6

The harsh reality of a home for abandoned children blends with episodes of youthful fantasy and slapstick comedy in this story of an orphan girl. Lucy's fondest wish is to find new parents and leave an orphanage. She befriends a man who can create doors from paint. He gives her a stuffed dog that magically comes alive when placed on the ground, and he and his wife end up adopting the little girl. After finding parents of her own, Lucy sets out through fantasy to find parents for her orphan friends. All of the people Lucy meet during her remarkable make believe wanderings end up taking children home.

Lucie and the Miracles

1971

No artwork available
5.0

An impoverished merchant, decided to sell a precious painting of his deceased wife, wanders into a fairy-tale castle at night, where he loses his painting and is given lavish gifts of clothes and jewelry for his two vain daughters. He then picks a rose himself for his youngest, Beauty. He is caught by the lord of the castle, a terrible monster, who sets a condition that the merchant either returns or one of his daughters voluntarily comes as a sacrifice for his father.

Kráska a zvíře

1972

The Flight poster
10.0

The kids were smoking secretly in a barn, set fire and fled. Feeling that the investigation closely, "sits on his tail" and soon will be declared to her parents, the protagonist escapes from home. The charred ruins of the barn, he meets a young man who is also why some carefully avoids meeting people, and tied him. According to the book Hoffmann Ota (Ota Hofman).

The Flight

1967