Czech Films 2014–2015

Everyone’s familiar with Andersen’s The Little Mermaid, the story of a love capable of forgiving even the greatest betrayal. In Balej’s film – a work filled with wonderful animation, expressive puppet designs and an imaginative, shifting score from French composer Chapelier Fou – the fairy-tale romance is replaced with a bleak portrayal of life in a city harbour, yet its enduring message remains. One of the first Czech feature-length puppet films to use both puppet and digital animation (stop motion + CGI).

Scenes from the unruly life of a popular artist-turned-celebrity based on the fortunes of photographer Jan Saudek (b. 1935), who was also involved in the screenplay. This acerbic comedy focuses on the maestro’s relationships with women, particularly the initially submissive Líba (in real life his former partner Sára).

After his triumph with the Normalisation drama Walking Too Fast, director Radim Špaček turns his attention to the 1990s. Casting fresh young actors in an industrial setting in North Bohemia, he shot a film about two boys whose home town is beginning to make them feel claustrophobic.

This graduate film by Štěpán Altrichter is a visually enchanting comedy mystery set in the Ore Mountains (Krušné Hory), which form a natural border between Germany and the Czech Republic. A level-headed engineer played by familiar German actor Peter Kurth arrives to repair a creaking old wind turbine. Out there in the misty woods he also goes in search of something else deep inside him.

A black-and-white flick set in North Bohemia where three ex-prisoners are determined to get even with a local pub owner who wrecked their lives some years back. This Eastern comedy by director Pavel Göbl brings Vratislav Brabenec to the big screen, saxophonist of the rock band The Plastic People of the Universe, supported by Jiří Lábus in the role of the former STB agent.

Three brothers set out into the wide world to gather experience and, along the way, they get caught up in the familiar settings of celebrated fairy tales where they have to deal with various pitfalls and unexpected situations, but they might also find love... A major part in this epic film fairy tale is played by the catchy songs created by popular duo Zdeněk Svěrák and Jaroslav Uhlíř.

A love story about a surprise romance between a deceived wife and her gay hairstylist. The debut by Slobodanka Radun unfolds in contemporary Prague which, thanks to the film’s clear artistic vision, appears as a modern and volatile metropolis.