Directed by: David Ondříček
Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, 2021, 131 min
Section: Special Screenings

David Ondříček’s fascinating drama presents the life of the famous Czech endurance runner and Olympic champion Emil Zátopek, a man who, with impressive nonchalance, pushed the boundaries of human possibilities and took his place alongside other greats who transformed athletic competitions into unforgettable stories.

Directed by: Adéla Komrzý
Czech Republic, 2021, 73 min
Section: East of the West Competition

Even though doctors Ondřej and Kateřina look after their patients to the best of their ability, they can’t prevent their death. As heads of palliative care at Prague’s General University Hospital they face the inevitability of the end on a daily basis. Yet what perhaps makes their job harder is the myriad options now open to them to prolong human life – and this at a time when death has become a social taboo. Betraying her special brand of empathy, documentarist Adéla Komrzý demonstrates that, while there’s no good or bad way to die, there’s always a means to improve patients’ quality of life.

Directed by: Jasmila Žbanić
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria, Romania, Netherlands, Germany, Poland, France, Norway, Turkey, 2020, 101 min
Section: Horizons

Twenty-five years ago more than eight thousand fathers, husbands and sons disappeared forever from the lives of Bosniak women. One of Europe’s most prominent filmmakers surveys the massacre carried out in Srebrenica by the Bosnian Serbs, and this through the eyes of her charismatic titular heroine, an interpreter for Dutch soldiers sent by the UN to war-ravaged former Yugoslavia. A highly evocative drama, Quo vadis, Aida was nominated for an Academy Award as Best International Feature.

Directed by: David Sís
Czech Republic, USA, France, 2021, 96 min
Section: Special Screenings

“Do you know what I’ve always wanted to find out, brother? Where do you get your ideas for your drawings?” director David Sís asks his older brother Petr at the beginning of the film. He doesn’t get an answer right away, but perhaps it can be found in this documentary that, with great care, traces the highly successful career of a talented and multifaceted artist whose work crosses generational and geographic boundaries.

Directed by: T. J. Martin, Daniel Lindsay
USA, 2021, 118 min
Section: Horizons

This retrospective of the career of 81-year-old Tina Turner is crammed with archival footage of her concerts. We follow her life from the late fifties to her peak in the late sixties and early seventies, and her later triumphant solo career. The film doesn't shy away from the darkest side of the singer's story, depicting her as a survivor of abuse at the hands of her husband Ike.

Directed by: Andy Fehu
Czech Republic, 2021, 99 min
Section: Midnight Screenings

Shoky and Morthy are best friends and successful YouTubers, but their fame is slowly beginning to fade. While Morthy would like to quit, Shoky comes up with ideas for making their videos more interesting… and bloodier. In the end, they set out for one “last big thing” that will save their YouTube channel and their disintegrating friendship.

Directed by: Elie Grappe
Switzerland, Ukraine, France, 2021, 87 min
Section: Horizons

Ukraine, autumn 2013. Olga, a fifteen-year-old top-flight gymnast, has some hard training ahead of her in Switzerland, which will bring about a primary shift in her career. The political situation in Kyiv intensifies, however, and Olga’s mother, a journalist and activist, joins the thousands of people demonstrating in Independence Square. This riveting film about fundamental dilemmas on the cusp of adulthood enchanted audiences at this year’s Cannes film festival.

Directed by: Jan Šikl
Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, 2021, 100 min
Section: Special Screenings

Documentary filmmaker Jan Šikl has spent many years seeking out and collecting private film archives. In this way, he came across several hours of footage showing the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. Exactly fifty-three years later, on August 21, 2021, historical memory awakens from a long slumber with this reconstruction of the occupation, a cinematic adventure of a truly archeological nature.

Directed by: Joachim Trier
Norway, France, Sweden, Denmark, 2021, 127 min
Section: Horizons

“Julie in 12 Chapters” is the subtitle of this film about a charming young woman who is still trying to find herself. But one day, Julie loses her youthful spirit and carefree attitude, and this just as her heart is fumbling blindly. Joachim Trier shows that the line between romantic comedy and complex drama is truly only in our minds.

Directed by: Philip Barantini
United Kingdom, 2020, 94 min
Section: Crystal Globe Competition

The shift has hardly begun for head chef Andy and he’s already behind with everything. His restaurant is overbooked, there’s a disgruntled inspector combing the kitchen and, if that weren’t enough, a culinary icon and a respected food critic have turned up for dinner. Via a single, continuous shot, we are launched into what proves to be a very hectic evening… The superb Stephen Graham takes the lead role in a British film about anyone who’s ever been stressed out at work and got themselves into a stew.