Zdeněk Dušek

Czech Television's epic historical film draws on the breathtaking dramatic life of the great of Czech history, King Charles IV.

Czechoslovakia, 1941. As the war continues, Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich arrives in Nazi-occupied Prague and establishes a regime of terror that will force freedom fighters to act. But the price to pay will be too high.

Hynek Michánek wants to study medicine but fails his entrance exams five times. He starts a job as an orderly in a district hospital where one of the doctors on the examining board works as well. He feels no-one takes him seriously and he loathes the doctors, who treat him with disdain. When an old man begs him to end his pain and suffering by helping him to die, Hynek gives him a "liberating" injection. But now he has done it once, he finds he can't stop. He continues killing other patients, even though he knows he can't get away with it for long.

A WW I veteran still haunted by his time in the trenches settles in a small town to work for the railroad company. His pretty wife attracts the attention of the lonely young gravedigger.

We meet Veronica shortly before her high-school graduation exams. She lives with her mother, an alcoholic, and her mother's partner. One day when he is drunk, he chases Veronica to the roof of a house and falls off, killing himself. He was in debt as he was addicted to gambling. His creditor wants the money back and starts to threaten Veronica. Her mother will not protect her since she is always drunk. Thus, the young girl must leave home and hide far away. On her journey she meets many characters. Some of them are comic, others are rather tragicomic. And Veronica tries to find good people with whom she would feel comfortable and happy, thus giving her life meaning. - Czech film center

Adam is a young farmer. As a child, fleeing the bleak reality of his mother's life as a prostitute, he tumbled from a mountain and was mentally injured. Years later, his mother is dying, so Adam sells their only cow to pay for medicine. Rosa, a beautiful young maid, fleeing the sexual exploitation of a wealthy butcher, climbs up to join them on their remote farm and dares to become part of Adam's world. A cycle of life begins again, in a remote turn-of-the-century village tied to the land and its animals.

A fairy tale of three brothers who try to save a princess kidnapped by an evil wizard.

Young Eugene from the provinces travels to Prague in search of fame. Once there he gets an offer to write engagé lyrics for pop songs...

As a car full of an assortment of characters rolls down an embankment and bursts into flames, the old driver says "See You in Hell, Friends." The relations between the characters are shown in flashbacks. The pretty Rita and her fiancee Petras meet the old colonel, and come to live in his farmhouse. Rita marries the colonel as well as her fiancee, and has a daughter Christine. The colonel's supposed father shows up, and also makes amorous advances on Rita. They all live blissfully together until two holy women with axes arrive. The women start chopping down trees to build an ark. Rita starts having nightmares and Christine is crucified.

In 1947 by the Beskid mountains, the traces of war still linger, destroyed tanks dispersed throughout the farmland creating an eerie backdrop. This film follows a ten-year-old boy and the strange visions he encounters, his world of fantasy exacerbated with ample time, space, and a lack of companionship or guidance. We see the adults that influence and dominate his life, for better or for worse. Surreal and packed with an excellent study of human emotions and motivations compounded by their rural, isolated vacuum of a town, this is a timeless and severely underrated film from a brilliant Czech director.

Martin, a poor student, volunteers to go on a quest to find a cure for the princess Adriana, who is stricken with a strange illness. Unknown to Martin or anyone else, the princess is actually under the spell of the powerful magician Andlobrandini, who is preparing a rejuvenating elixir made from the blood of nine men's hearts.

The waitress Gita from the hotel "Bobí vrch" approaches her lover who has not left his wife yet and gives him an ultimatum: if he does not do all according to her wish, she will announce to the police his machinations with foreign currency.

Seven days, or rather evenings and nights, in the life of Jenka (Stanislava Bartosová), a young good-looking nurse. Jenka is attractive to men and enjoys their company, but there is a limit beyond which she won't go, since she is faithful to her Filip, who is doing his military service. On Sunday the girl awaits Filip to arrive on a short period of leave, but instead his friend Míla (Frantisek Nemec) turns up and apologizes for Filip, who has to stay in the barracks.

A film in five episodes, all based on an attempt to show the life of young people today, their feelings and relationships, their behaviour in public and private life.