A story about a man overly influenced by the women in his life, which is unique in many ways, including the fact that he somehow turned out to be "straight" in spite of his ordeals with women, which started at birth.
When a noted professor receives a new treatment for his heart ailment, his outlook on life changes. Despite doctor's orders, he is determined to live out his final days on his own terms and fulfill his fantasies. He saves the life of a young woman who tries to kill herself after his recovery from heart surgery in this symbolic story of a man trying to determine his own fate in his last days alive.
The title "All My Good Countrymen" is not without irony as this epic tale of Czech village life from shortly after the end of the Second World War concentrates on the activities of a group of friends who are not beyond reproach in siding with a politically corrupt regime for material advancement. Are these the "good countrymen" of the title or does it refer to the rest of the village who scorn these petty authority figure with silent contempt?
Barinová
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.
Lola
A film adaptation of the novelette of the same title written by Dominik Tatarka depicts the life of a young generation of artists that was formed in Slovakia during the war. Anabella, a young and beautiful girl meets a group of artists. She awakens their erotic desires but also pure feelings of love; she becomes the object of their secret fantasies as well as their artistic inspiration. And it seems that the boundaries between reality and fantasy suddenly cease to exist.
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.
