Jan Kraus

Comedy inspired by paperback crime novels tells the story of an adventurous search for a mysterious murderer who just after the end of the First World War has begun a rampage in Wilson City, a jerkwater town somewhere in Eastern Europe. The investigation is being led by an inhomogeneous pair of detectives - a greenhorn and local police cadet named Eisner and an experienced FBI officer Food, who has been sent to Europe by US President Woodrow Wilson himself.

A 19 year old nonconformist poet living in 1947 Czechoslovakia is blind to the Communist behemoth looking over him, and instead lives a bohemian life with sexually liberated girls.

This movie is about strange relationships in one "noname" gymnasium in Czech republic.

Produced by Czech television, Mestecko (Small Town) is the directorial debut of theatrical veteran Jan Kraus. This episodic comedy is set in the small town of Mestecko (which literally translates to "small town") right before the Velvet Revolution of 1989. Tonda (Vlastimil Brabec) leads an ensemble cast of townsfolk who are eager to experience capitalism, but are unaware of how it's supposed to work. They set out to pull get-rich-quick schemes and end up creating their own version of free enterprise. For instance, a group of men run for office as a political party called the"Independent Eroticists" so they can hire a stripper to perform for the town. Individual business owners plot various schemes in order to participate in the new economy as the town heads into the '90s

Produced by Czech television, Mestecko (Small Town) is the directorial debut of theatrical veteran Jan Kraus. This episodic comedy is set in the small town of Mestecko (which literally translates to "small town") right before the Velvet Revolution of 1989. Tonda (Vlastimil Brabec) leads an ensemble cast of townsfolk who are eager to experience capitalism, but are unaware of how it's supposed to work. They set out to pull get-rich-quick schemes and end up creating their own version of free enterprise. For instance, a group of men run for office as a political party called the"Independent Eroticists" so they can hire a stripper to perform for the town. Individual business owners plot various schemes in order to participate in the new economy as the town heads into the '90s

A husband asks the best friend to seduce his wife in order to get divorce.

Ten short unrelated stories that move chronologically through Slovakia's twentieth-century history as seen from the perspective of life in small towns and villages.

A four-story omnibus depicting different Czech slices-of-life from the titular city.

A very free adaptation of Marlowe's 'Doctor Faustus', Goethe's 'Faust' and various other treatments of the old legend of the man who sold his soul to the devil. A nondescript man is lured by a strange map into a sinister puppet theatre, where he finds himself immersed in an indescribably weird version of the play, blending live actors, clay animation and giant puppets.

Life of Czechoslovak soldiers in a military unit for the so called "politically unreliable" - the Technical auxiliary battalions, aka "the black barons". Although it might seem like a political satire and it's mostly funny, it shows the reality and the absurdity of military service under the communist regime. Based on a novel by Miloslav Svandrlik.

BREAKFAST: After eating breakfast, a man is transformed into an elaborate dumb-waiter-style breakfast dispenser - and the same fate befalls the man who obtains breakfast from him. LUNCH: After failing to catch the waiter's eye, two would-be diners end up eating everything within reach. DINNER: Portraits of various meals made up of human organs.

In the middle of a war between two kingdoms queen died tragically while giving birth to her third daughter. The king wanted a male heir to his throne and torn by the death of his wife, decides to sacrifice the girl and leads to the Cave of the Golden Rose to give her to the monster. The child is saved by the White Witch who promises her a wonderful future. With a rebellious temperament, the princess, named by his father Fantaghiro behaves like a tomboy. But one day she must confront the enemy, the king Romualdo, which is in love with her.

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...

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...

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...

Pan Tau, the friend of all children, now also helps the adults. A movie producer is in trouble and decides to shoot another Pan-Tau movie. But the old Pan-Tau actor Karasek is no longer young enough to walk the almost weightless walk of Pan Tau. Mr. Novak turns up - he resembles Pan Tau like a twin brother. He succeeds every pirouette. And as if by magic, he solves all the problems between people! Who is Mr. Novak? Is he really ...?

A narration of episodes from the life of the famous Czech poet, Karel Hynek Mácha. Throughout the film, we witness a deep analysis of Mácha's complex character (his relation to another Czech writer of the time Josef Kajetán Tyl, his unbearable jealousy, his solitude, his attitude to nature,etc.) on the well-depicted historical background with all its particularities.

Why? (Czech: Proč?) is a 1987 Czechoslovak drama film directed by Karel Smyczek. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival. The film deals with the hooliganism in Czechoslovakia, particularly with the fans of football club Sparta from Prague, whose supporters were the pioneers of the football fan riots in Czechoslovakia, starting with hooligan actions already in the 1960s, like breaking the trains in which they travelled when they went on Sparta's away games. The film deals with one of such episodes

After his sister is turned into a werewolf and subsequently killed, Ben White decides to help the enigmatic Stefan Crosscoe fight the growing population of lupine monsters, along with the lovely Jenny Templeton. Traveling to Transylvania, Ben, Jenny and Crosscoe attempt to hunt down the powerful werewolf queen, Stirba, and must face her furry followers, as well as other supernatural forces.

Matej and Jenda, two of the eight children of the poor Pelc family in the Giant Mountains, help in a glass works where the oldest brother Francek works. They hide into a tub not to be seen by supervisors checking on the ban of children labor. They miss the Epiphany carol (songs and treats door-to-door) and all neighbor village boys again on them in all the neighbor houses. On their way home they are passed by a fast moving big man with a large backpack. The boys send the customs officers, who are pursuing the strange man, to the opposite direction. The man then thanks them and rewards them the next day. Based on fairy-tales and legends the boys think the man is Krakonos (the giant living and ruling in the Giant Mountains).

Czech comedy from the 70ties.

The true story of the Bavarian Tailor Albrecht Berblinger who, after a strange encounter with a balloon starts building a flying machine. Although not an engineer by profession, he never gives up. No matter how many obstacles are put in his way nor how many failures he endures, his ardour is never dampened. He continues with his dream to fly like a bird.

The director of films for kids called Bonzurka together with her loyal assistants Drahuska and Honza are looking for the actors for a new movie "The Knee". Children for this movie should not be afraid and shy and they must have talent for acting. Thus the scouting is quite difficult. The most difficult is to find an actress for a main character who lost her hair after a serious illness and now has to spent the whole holiday in the countryside with a bald head resembling a knee. Although the makeup artist does his best an artificial baldness does not solve anything. From the selected little girls only the self-assertive Rosemary has the guts to let her long hair to be cut and shave off her head.

The king Dalimil and the queen Eliska waited to see a longed-for offspring - a daughter Ruzenka. But Eliska's envious and bad sister Melánie curses her. When Ruzenka becomes 17 years old she will prick her finger and she will fall asleep for ages together with the entire kingdom.

A musical starring Jiří Menzel (whose part is sung by Achilles Michailidis) as a math and physics teacher employing innovative teaching methods.

The heroes of this absurd comedy, full of confusion and humor are Dzharda Zemanek and Frantisek Liska.

Three short stories ("Zelenáči 1945", "Silvestr 1948" and "Zimní vítr 1951") about members of the SNB units guarding the Šumava border in the post-war years. Ivo Toman had artistic supervision over the debutants. The theme of the third short story was made in 1959 for the film "Entry Forbidden" by František Vláčil, who was also starting at the time.

A group of children are investigating a chain of mysterious events during the seventies.

Exotic, yet lyrically aimed fairy tale about a young gypsy Pista in search of a beautiful, gentle and faithful bride. An old man told him where to find a girl with those qualities, so Pista sets out on a journey to find the girl of his dreams without knowing that she is special: an hour a day human and rest of the day a chicken...

It is the summer of 1968 and also in South Moravian Pálavice appear political clashes. The so far peacefully farming Unified farmers' cooperative starts splitting. Some of the farmers have found the cooperative called Vidrupa and want to deal with wine in private trade. Michal Janák, chairman of the farmers' cooperative is a deliberate man and refuses the latent return to the capitalism. As an excellent farmer he continues preparing planting out new vineyards. His adversaries do not agree - the returns will come many years later. Jozka Hrdlicka, an émigré, notices on the Austrian TV the interview with the representatives of Vidrupa and decides to visit his native village. The new suit and the hired car transform the bankrupt and criminal to the successful businessman with wine.

An only son, Jirí Valenta (Jaromír Hanzlík), has been drafted to the army. At the barracks he acquires the nickname Seamstress because he sews rugs in his spare time. One day, his friend introduces him to Julka Vávrová (Jorga Kotrbová), a girl he is desperate to get rid of. The naive Jirí falls in love with the girl and accepts her invitation to spend Easter together in the country. There he learns that the girl is the single mother of the young boy Martínek, whose father is the married tractor driver.

Two kind but foolish sisters live together in their villa in a small town in South Bohemia. Fany (Natasa Gollová) has never married and Andelka (Eva Svobodová) is a widow. In the morning, the two sisters go into town. They need to buy fuel oil, put money in the bank and give plums to the teller. In the meantime an smallish orange Skoda MB car parks at their house, with Hermínka (Iva Janzurová), the old ladies' niece, and her fiancé Michal (Jirí Hrzán) in it. Michal has forgotten to bring flowers and has to go into town to fetch them. At the bank, Fany wants to deposit money but the minute the teller opens the safe, a thief arrives. He knocks the teller and Fany unconscious and runs away with the money. When Fany comes to her senses again, she sees Michal and accuses him of being the thief.

There are still water spirits among us. One group lives in Prague, led by Mr. Wassermann, who is using his wife's family as a servants. All they need is their old house near the river. But the house is to be demolished. They have to stop it. And the only way is to drown Dr. Mrácek, who is responsible for the demolition. But he falls in love with Wassermann's niece Jana. He changes to fish, is mistaken for water spirit from Germany, is drowned and revived again. The other problem is the flour with ears... and so on...

Police find a girl with a bleeding face in a small town park at night. First the girl, a textile factory worker Jana, refuses to talk, and then she decides to tell the truth. After her father's death she, by herself, takes care of her younger brother called Pinda. She does not like the influence that a gang of older boys from the factory exercise over her brother. The gang leader Jirka, called King, is admire by local girls whose number exceeds boys in the town because there are many textile factories where only girls are working. They easily yield to him and then he easily gets rid of them. Jana is a hard nut for him. She refuses his purposeful courtesy and thus she unintentionally gets his attention. King inspires the gang on how to get money by stealing textile from the factory warehouse.

Sixteen-year-old students of a grammar school are supposed to write essays on "Love". The class best student Andrea (Jaroslava Schallerová) writes about a patriotic love to a country as she has no experience with a partner love. She has been living alone with her divorced pretty mother Eva (Milena Dvorská), a dentist, for many years. Recently, however, Eva met her former school-days love at a graduates' party, nowadays a famous hockey goalkeeper Brukner (Frantisek Velecký). Also his marriage fell apart; he leaves the national team and decides to leave Prague for his home town and to share flat with Eva. He takes with him his son Petr (Oldrich Kaiser), in Andrea's age, who gets his last chance to finish a grammar school in the town.

A teenage witch, Saxana (Petra Černocká), frozen in time as a punishment for 300 years, finds herself in a modern world.

Slacker Maurice Fadinar wasted his whole inheritance and the only way out of this situation, as it seems, to marry Helen Nonankur - daughter of a wealthy farmer. At the last meeting with his mistress in a nearby forest Fadinar's horse eats straw hat which belongs to a married lady, spending time in the company of young and hot Lieutenant Emil. Emil literally puts a knife to Maurice throat - or the lady will get back the exact same hat immediately, or he will arrange such a scandal that no wedding will not happen ...

Twelve-year old Kosta, a little boy of an overactive imagination, makes friends with equally sensitive eleven-year old Blanka. Fantasy leads the two children to the forgotten attic in the house of Blanka's parents. For them, this is the forbidden "thirteenth chamber," and to Kosta, an old glass vase becomes a magic ball with the help of which he can play his favorite play "on fate". The children observe the adults and unconsciously sense that something has gone wrong in Blanka's family. Her dad is a physician and her mother is not happy with him, still recollecting her former wooer Petr who left for India upon his graduation.

Mr. Kopfrkingl enjoys his job at a crematorium in Czechoslovakia in the late 1930s. He likes reading the Tibetan book of the dead and espouses the view that cremation relieves earthly suffering and sets out to save the world. There may be another idealogy that fits snugly with his existing worldview.

Widowed yeoman Tuma and his household are on their way to help the town of Kourim, which is under attack by the papist troops. His son Ondra is secretly following his father. Miksík the castellan, who is responsible for Ondra, finds himself forced to set off after the boy. They are both captured by soldiers from Kutná Hora. Miksík sacrifices himself to give Ondra a chance to flee. On the way, Ondra runs into the orphan Sulík. The two boys become friends and begin to wander together.

Twelve-year-old Jana returns from the hospital. She notices some changes at home and is worried that her parents are going to divorce. In reality, however, they are expecting another child.

A dark fable set in an early 1950s Czech village, a time of Soviet-style socialism which saw the implementation of collectivized agriculture and the mass closure of monasteries and convents.

A dark comedy about a murder and its consequences presented in a backwards manner, where death is actually a rebirth. The film starts with an "execution" of the main protagonist and goes back to explore his previous actions and motivations.

The Stolen Airship (Czech: Ukradená vzducholod) is a 1967 live-action/animated film by Czech filmmaker Karel Zeman. The story is based loosely on Jules Verne's novels Two Years' Vacation and The Mysterious Island. The film in Art Nouveau style consists of live-action scenes, generally shot in black and white, as well as hand-drawn, stop motion, and cutout animation. Various live-action and animated elements are often composited into the same scene.

Captain Martin from the police's child department and his colleague Kraus are called to Znojmo to help solve a case regarding stolen toys found in the town's subterranean passages. The members of the local police department are convinced that the thieves are the well-known "customers" from the Znojmo elementary school, pupils Exner and Mandlík. Martin, however, has doubts about these culprits. These doubts grow even stronger after the local self-service shop is robbed and the local tobacco store reports that it is missing a lot of imported cigarettes. Martin questions the children, inspects both shops and searches through the underground.

It is the summer holiday and little Mísa Horák has taken a few animals from the school's so-called "Corner of Living Nature" home to care for. But when he brings home two Angora rabbits, a starling, a little monkey, a tortoise and a small crocodile, his parents order him to take them away. He is helped by Káta, who offers to place the animals in the child's room of her family's apartment. Mísa leaves for her friend where the animals will hopefully be able to stay. Káta goes shopping. In the meantime, Káta's younger sister Minka wakes up and begins to play with the animals, who gradually run off in disarray.

Oldrich is the runt of his village, beaten by his father, bullied by the other boys. But he has imagination of his side, and a wiry toughness they can’t defeat. The village is in turmoil, because the Nazi occupiers have just retreated and the Red Army is advancing. Oldrich dodges amid the mayhem and panic, taking his share of blows but always managing to stay one step ahead. Beautifully shot and darkly ironic, Karel Kachyna’s forgotten masterpiece jumbles reality, memory and fantasy to capture the intensity and confusion of childhood in a war zone.