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Bethlehem Light
Šejnoha, a well-known writer now aged 75, is aware of his increasing age and the risk that his literary style will grow worn. His everyday existence is enlivened by characters from his stories, who tend to enter reality in unexpected ways, at various stages of completeness and with all kinds of strange demands. Šejnoha passes freely from reality to fiction and back again. This comedy of intertwined stories looks at universal spiritual issues of human existence, love, faith and miracles. Using visual stylisation, a pinch of magical realism, exaggeration and clever dialogues, it treats questions of life and death with lightness and humor.
Barefoot
Eight-years-old Eda is a long-desired and anxiously protected child by parents who had lost one baby before. Now Eda became backup child; he even has the same name.
After his father rejects to affiliate with Nazi invadors of Czechoslovakia in 1939, the family is forced to leave Prague and spend war times living with relatives in the countryside. Little town where Eda used to spend short holiday only, becomes his home for a while.
Three Brothers
Parents of three brothers decide to send their sons out into the world. They are ment to overcome their character flaws, find themselves a bride and look after family farm. While pilgrimage the brothers enter famous fairy tales that bring many traps, unexpected situations a maybe even love.
Musical fairy tale The Three Brothers serves advanture, surprising moments and kind-hearted humour. Story including popular songs were created by famous Czech authors Zdenek Sverak and Jaroslav Uhlir.
Kooky
When six-year-old ONDRA is forced to throw away his scruffy, sawdust-stuffed old teddy bear, KOOKY, he prays for the safe return of his furry friend. Later, across town, Kooky is about to be crushed in a rubbish dump when he suddenly comes to life, making his escape into a mysterious forest. The naïve, cuddly Kooky needs help to survive in the rough-and-ready world of the forest and he finds it when he meets the crotchety forest guardian HERGOT. But Hergot has his enemies too – the malevolent NUSHKA and his goons plan to take over the forest, trying to prove that the short-sighted but good-hearted Hergot is not up to the job of guardian.
Empties
Czech literature teacher Tkaloun unwillingly goes into retirement. Instead of a peaceful family life he chooses a part-time job in a supermarket at the bottle-return counter. The exciting new world that he creates there however leaves less and less room for his wife, Eliska, and she of course has no intention of getting used to it.
This love story in old age dramatises the formidable moments in life, but its humour avoids sentiment in the style of a bitter-sweet Czech comedy.
Papa
An artistic documentary with the slogan The Marblization of Zdeněk Svěrák is released in an innovatory way to film distribution on DVD. It is a complex biographic documentary describing the life and artistic fate of the father of one of the filmmakers, who is a script-writer, lyrics-writer and interpreter of songs for children, actor and co-founder of the Jara Cimrman’s Theatre. The picture was made in a time span of over a year and the authors had available material for eighty hours. The filmmakers proceed chronologically.
Dark Blue World
Reuniting the creative team responsible for Kolya, 1996 Oscar® winner for Best Foreign Film, under Czech director Jan Sverak, Dark Blue World tells the story of the friendship between two Czech pilots, the veteran Franta (Ondrej Vetchý) and fresh-faced young trainee Karel (Krystof Hádek). They escape Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, make their way to Britain and join the Royal Air Force. When Karel’s plane is hit and he bails out in the countryside, he is taken in by Susan (Tara Fitzgerald), an Englishwoman whose husband is missing in action. In a moment of weakness, she makes love to Karel, relieving him of his virginity. But later, when Karel takes Franta to meet his “new love,” Franta and Susan are attracted to each other, leading to a situation that will put the two men’s friendship to the ultimate test.
Kolya
Oscar® Winner Best Forein Film (1996). A middle-aged Czech cellisti s a skirt-chasing bachelor, who enjoys lifestyle free of responsibilities. Strapped for cash he agrees to a marriage of convenience. But after his new bride skips town, he is left to father her five-year-old Russian son, Kolya. Neither could be more unhappy with their predicament, especially since they don´t even speak the same language. But time and patience forma n unbreakable bond between this unlikely father-son duo.
The Ride
Two young friends (Jakub Spalek, Radek Pastrnak) set out on a holiday trip through their native Bohemia with freedom loving Americans as their model. In the local condition, though, that requires a good deal of improvisation: their beautiful convertible materializes when they cut the roof off an old wreck and who needs a driving licence when you know how to dodge the police. Under strange circumstances, the two friends are joined by beautiful girl (Anna Geislerova) who is on the run. For her, the two heroes are willing to pretend to rob a bank and much, much more. The play on light adventure, a humorous Central European paraphrase of the road movie, then begins to mix with the play performed by women and men from time immemorial. It’s really not that hard to play freely with love and death. There’s just one problem, that sometimes it truly doesn’t pay off.
Accumulator I
Outsider Olda is a typical product of this era: a psychological and physical “drip” whose time is spent watching the TV, which for him –as for many of us – provides an artificial substitute for his own life. Overlooked and ridiculed by his sexually more successful colleague, Olda spends his evenings alone in front of his TV set, empty and becoming emptier still – until one day he can’t leave his bed and is taken to hospital with an unidentified ailment. Only folk therapist Fisarek finds a name for his strange disease – “total loss of energy”.
Elementary School
This gentle comedy takes place just after World War II., during the academic year 1945-46. Ten-year-old Eda and his friend Tonda attend an elementary school in Prague suburbs. They are pupils of an all-boy class which is famous for its bad behaviour. No wonder one day the teacher is drive out of her mind. Although it seems there exists no remedy, nevertheless… The teacher is replaced by Igor Hnízdo – allegedly the hero of several military operations – an energetic, uncompromising and just man.
Oil Gobblers
Hoax documentary Oilgobblers is Jan Sverak´s graduation film of FAMU Documentary department. Vivid story shows fictional scientistic expedition to find an unknown creature, oilgobbler, whose character is against any biological rules. Sverak´s sci-fi short was awarded with Student Academy Award (Student´s Oscar), Golden Dragon + OIRT Award Krakow 1988, Best Direction Award – Parma 1989, Main Award Odense Festival 1991.