Magda Vášáryová

This year’s gallery of artistically inspiring portraits of uncompromising eccentrics (among them The Hanging of Stuart Cornfeld, Robert Richardson: The White Devil and A Pint of Ink) features another unobtrusive stand-out in the shape of Igor Luther, a key figure of Slovak and European cinematography. Ivan Ostrochovský’s perspective is rare, dynamic and also meditative, while Luther himself co-authored the project during the last few months of his life. Works such as Juraj Jakubisko’s Birds, Orphans and Fools, Volker Schlöndorff’s The Tin Drum and Andrzej Wajda’s Danton, in the persuasive words of their creators, wouldn't have the same timeless energy today if it weren't for Luther's visionary endeavours.

A look at the life, work and importance of Czech filmmaker Karel Zeman (1910-89), a genius of world cinema, a wizard of special effects, revealing his sources of inspiration and his revolutionary filming techniques.

Documentary feature about Czech director Jiří Menzel, featuring Menzel himself as well as Miloš Forman, Emir Kusturica, István Szabó and others.

Francin, manager of a small-town brewery, has a charming wife whose abundant blonde locks are an adornment to the town. Maryska looks ethereal but loves meat and beer, while Francin is an ascetic. The strict members of the brewery board of directors come to audit the accounts, but are diverted from concentrating on Francin's detailed reports by Maryska, who has organized a pig-killing feast and is ably assisting the butcher. When she invites the old curmudgeons on the board to enjoy the fresh pork, they are too happy to agree. Francin doesn't know whether he is going to get a permanent contract. To make things worse his brother Pepin - eccentric, noisy and garrulous - turns up on an indefinite visit.

Donizetti's opera as film.

The film tells the exciting life of the great Czech composer Leos Janácek (1854-1928), also known by the thick silver hair that crowned his head and his strong character, which could overcome the adversities of fate.

Tereza lives and works in Prague. She meets a handsome man, Tommie, speaking in a language incomprehensible to her. It seems that he is the manager of the Finnish ice hockey team. A love story starts to blossom. When the coach of the Czech ice hockey team tries to use Tereza to retrieve information about the strategy of the Finnish team, Tommie leaves Tereza. Will Tereza be able to clear up this misunderstanding?

A surreal movie by peter Weigl starring Michael Biehn and Lubomir Kafka.

The story takes place in the Czech-German border region in 1938. The hero Tomás Jakl marries but the marriage is not very lucky and falls apart. His German friend forced him to enter the Nazi party.

Benjamin Britten’s opera of the Henry James novel. An inexperienced governess is sent to a country house to care for two children, whom she is gradually convinced have been corrupted by the ghosts of a previous manservant and governess…

A remake of Vávra's 1948 atomic age thriller Krakatit. Engineer Prokop creates the devastating explosive “Krakatit” and soon confronts manipulative agents and imperialist conspiracies. Realizing his invention’s threat, he fights to prevent its misuse, risking everything to stop those who seek to exploit his epochal discovery.

A filmed version of Tchaikovsky's opera. Onegin visits a friend, his fiancee and her sister Tatiana, who believes Onegin is her fated love. She writes a note telling him so, but he rejects her. Years later he returns, finding her married, but now he's smitten with her.

No synopsis available yet.

Soňa, an emotionally unfulfilled nurse trapped in a monotonous marriage, decides to break away from her routine to escape her surroundings. Despite facing personal failures and ideological conflicts with her husband, she undergoes a process of self-discovery.

This downbeat, grim drama about three brothers who are reunited at their mother's funeral is actually visually as dark as its story, making it difficult at times to clearly distinguish a scene. These brothers are not particularly exceptional as people go, but at least they have branched out into separate vocations in their lives. One brother is a doctor, another is a criminal, and the third is a bus driver. Like others in Europe, they suffered through World War II, yet no matter what their backgrounds and experiences, their interpersonal relationships are not exactly gripping drama.

No synopsis available yet.

Miller’s daughter Zuzanka Vojířová, betrothed to Ondřej Zachar, hesitates before marriage when Lord Peter Vok of Rožmberk invites her to his castle. There she bears his son Petříček, but his wife hides the child. After Vok’s death in battle, Zuzanka is expelled and lives as a beggar, reunited with her son and former fiancé, finding solace in the continuation of the Rožmberk lineage.

No synopsis available yet.

No synopsis available yet.

Based on the eponymous novel by Ladislav Ballek. An aging man wanders through a familiar rural landscape, triggering memories of his blond-boyhood in a small town. As he recalls everyday lives, adventures, and background events - war’s end, shifting borders, loyalties - the boundary between real and imagined blurs.

No synopsis available yet.

Jules Massanet's lyrical opera is transformed into a superb film production by Petr Weigl, shot on location in Prague, with music conducted by Libor Pesek. First produced by the Vienna Opera in February 1892, "Werther" rapidly confirmed Massanet's position on the French opera scene and achieved enormous popularity outside France, notably in Italy, America and England. The tragic story tells of Werther's intense passion for Charlotte, who has married his best friend, Albert, fulfilling a pledge to her now deceased mother. But Werther's letters of love bring Charlotte to his side when he promises to take his own life.

No synopsis available yet.

No synopsis available yet.

No synopsis available yet.

The film is essentially a feature-length commercial for an exhibition to mark the 40th anniversary of the nationalisation of the Czechoslovak film industry, to be held at the Prague U Hybernu venue. The protagonists of the piece are comedians Oldrich Kaiser and Jirí Lábus, who are set to accept an award from Japanese television representatives at the exhibition. At the same time, five gangsters plot to seize a revolutionary invention devised by professor Suzuki - a super holograph, which enables any figure from television to be transported in the flesh into the real world, and vice-versa.

This two-part production follows the lives of three generations of women from the Jablonczay family at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The first part begins in 1882 and focuses on the two older generations. The eldest, Maria (Emília Vášáryová), lives in a dead relationship with her husband Kálmán (Milan Kněžko). She is the mother of a son and three daughters, each of whom tries to cope with her despotic nature in different ways. In the second part, the youngest, third generation of characters enters the scene. Lenka (Zuzana Vačková) is first educated in a convent with the kind approach of the mother superior (Magda Vášáryová) and slowly gets to know the real world outside the convent and her strict family environment. The play is based on the novel by Hungarian prose writer Magda Szabó, originally titled "An Old-Fashioned Story," in which the author describes the family life of her own ancestors.

The hero of this popular fairy tale is a young prince who, after the death of his parents, goes out into the world. During his travels he meets a magical talking horse and falls in love with the beautiful princess Slavna. On the advice of his horse, he binds one eye and pretends to be dumb and enters into service as the castle gardener.

No synopsis available yet.

When a comet passes the Earth at close range, it pulls a small part of North Africa with it. Carried along are a bunch of people, among them Angelika, who has just escaped from a ruthless weapon dealer's ship, and her two brothers, who are searching for her. Then there's a group of natives planning a rebellion against the French colonists. All conflicts become secondary when the people finally realize that they're doomed to live together on an alien planet. However, this time of peace and happiness won't last for long...

No synopsis available yet.

The original television production of the play by Jozef Gregor Tajovský. A drama from a Slovak village at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, in which the author shows the senselessness of linking human destinies for the sake of property. In the play, the author showed how property had taken over the entire thinking and actions of the farmer Palčík and his wife Mary. They persuaded the poor Ľavkovs to give them their son Ďurek as their own and marry him to Zuzka, with the understanding that they would transfer all the property to them after their death.

No synopsis available yet.

Three arias from Antonín Dvořák´s fairytale opera Rusalka turned in to a movie, sung by Gabriela Beňačková (Rusalka), Libuše Márová (Witch), René Tuček (Hunter).

Levoča, first half of the 16th century. Master Paul creates his most famous work - a late Gothic altar in the Church of St. James. He has just recruited the carving companion Kristof into his service.

A play about the issue of family relationships, real and calculated partnership.

No synopsis available yet.

A film based on short stories by K. Przerwu-Tetmajer's Grey Eyes and M. Urban's Melted Heart. The heroines of both stories are young women with the same name - Kristka. They fight for their love, they both love with humility and surrender, but when necessary, they can be decisive and uncompromising. One is cruel in her love, the other fights for it with touching tenderness and kindness. These are not idyllic loves; they are full of life, full of raging blood...

This film, chronicling the last days of Czech resistance fighter Maruska Kuderikova (played by Magda Vasaryova), is based on her diaries. Though she was tortured and eventually executed by the Nazis, her diaries indicate that she was optimistic for the humanity of her captors and did not by any means hate them. Told with simple dignity, this film makes clear why Maruska became a national hero.

A picture of generational confrontations between children and parents. A young and ambitious violin virtuoso, Peter, lives in long-lasting conflicts with his father. Only after his death Peter realizes how much he had been hurting his father. Still, not even the tragedy can make a change in his shallow life in stereotype.

No synopsis available yet.

No synopsis available yet.

No synopsis available yet.

Two newly qualified civil engineers, with very different personalities, soon discover that they know very little about their future work and the people they will be dealing with. In addition to difficulties at work, they also have personal problems to contend with.

No synopsis available yet.

No synopsis available yet.

The television production is an episode from the life of Andrej Sládkovič. Braxatoris, known as Sládkovič, comes to Banská Štiavnica and wants to find the inspiration for his poetry - Marína. Her parents reject him. Marína marries Gerža, a rich merchant. Sládkovič finds affection and understanding with Antonia, whom he marries...

A tale based on novel by Czech writer Bozena Nemcova.

No synopsis available yet.

While hunting, Prince Radúz of Maguria wanders into the rival kingdom of the Tatra King, Stojmír. He discovers that their nations' long-standing feud stems from the bitter jealousy of Queen Runa, who was once rejected by Radúz’s father. Radúz is soon captured by Runa’s forces after crossing the border. His fate becomes entwined with the royal family when it is revealed that the white deer he killed belonged to Mahulena, the King’s youngest and most delicate daughter.

No synopsis available yet.

Two historical stories about love. In the story "The Arabian Horse", the scheming townsman Messer Francesco Vergellesi is so firmly convinced of his wife's virtue that he does not hesitate to bet her against a rare stallion he has a crush on... The story "The Earrings" shows how a poor girl can help herself to a rare jewel and what intrigues are needed for an elderly noble couple to finally have an heir...

No synopsis available yet.

No synopsis available yet.

Mikolás and his brother Adam end up with a young German hostage of noble blood during a robbery. While their clan prepares for the wrath of the German king, Mikolás is sent to pressure his neighbor Lazar into a defense pact. Persuasion fails and he abducts Lazar's daughter Marketa on the eve of her initiation as a nun in an act of vengeance.

In the aftermath of war, two men and a woman begin acting more like children than adults, leading to tragedy.

A man changes his behavior according to the term of the year.

A tragic story of an uneasy marriage between a young girl and an elderly, crotchety man who cannot understand or approach her.

Two friends, who go hunting meet a woman who questions their practice.

An apocalyptic story of three wars in three film tales encompassing the end of the WWI,WWII, as well as a vision of the world destroyed by nuclear weapons. This film was honored at the film festivals in Venice and Sorrento. Immediately after that the copy with Italian subtitles was locked in a safe as evidence of the anti-communist activities of the director, who used real footage of the Soviet invasion.