Jakub Hejna

The Czech criminal René is finding it difficult to go straight. Roaming from job to shelter, from woman to woman, he discovers that living honestly is a lot more difficult than just stealing something every once in a while. In 1989, filmmaker Helena Třeštíková started filming the then 18-year-old delinquent, ultimately resulting in the 2008 film René, which follows his life inside and outside prison. This sequel to that film begins with the premiere of René and the ensuing storm of media attention.

Documentary on the life and art of Marie Cermínová AKA Toyen or “the baroness” to her friends. Long considered a marginal figure, it was not until her death in 1980, when her estate was auctioned off, that Toyen’s masterpieces finally saw the light of day. This film is a portrait of an important figure of the European artistic avant-garde in the 20th century.

In her most recent film, Linda Kallistová Jablonská observes three girls growing up in a residential facility in Počátky, Czech Republic, over the course of ten years. She explores their dreams about liberty, the reality they must face as well as their ideas about their own future families. The sequel to her first longitudinal documentary about Adéla, Denisa and Pavla captures the rocky road to independence after leaving the facility, their reconciliation with the past, job search, new relationships, small joys and big disappointments. Not only does the director draw an empathic portrait of three young girls with no-one to rely on but themselves; she also explores the ways in which public institutions form young people’s attitudes to life.

Anny follows the life of the titular, intriguing character for 16 years, from 1996 up until 2012. Living in the Czech Republic, Anny is a 46-year-old woman whose day-to-day life has consisted of several different occupations, from a bathroom attendant and a doorman, to occasional sex work. Her outlook on her jobs is fairly simple, you have to do the work if you want to eat, spoil your grandkids, or buy yourself new clothes.

Urban, un huérfano, sirve como aprendiz a un codicioso maestro relojero. Cuando Urban crece, se enamora de Laura, la hija del relojero, y quiere casarse con ella. Antes de que esto suceda, el maestro envía a su aprendiz al mundo con la tarea de buscar un reloj mítico que pueda advertir de la muerte. Nadie sabe si el reloj existe, pero si Urban no lo devuelve, Laura nunca será su esposa. El aprendiz de relojero emprende así un largo viaje lleno de dificultades, que deberá superar con valentía, destreza y buen corazón.

Un conmovedor relato, en sus propias palabras, de la vida personal y la obra del brillante cineasta checo Miloš Forman (1932-2018): su trágica infancia, su gran contribución al movimiento cultural conocido como la Nueva Ola checa, su exilio en París, sus difíciles días en Nueva York, su ascenso al estrellato en Hollywood; toda una vida al servicio del cine.

Un conmovedor relato, en sus propias palabras, de la vida personal y la obra del brillante cineasta checo Miloš Forman (1932-2018): su trágica infancia, su gran contribución al movimiento cultural conocido como la Nueva Ola checa, su exilio en París, sus difíciles días en Nueva York, su ascenso al estrellato en Hollywood; toda una vida al servicio del cine.

Andy, Petra y Bára. Tres vidas que se reúnen en la penitenciaría de Světlá nad Sazavou. Ahí se tiene un área para que las madres puedan tener a sus hijos con ellas mientras cumplen sus sentencias. El vínculo de la maternidad puede ser la motivación más poderosa para llevar una vida mejor.

Andy, Petra y Bára. Tres vidas que se reúnen en la penitenciaría de Světlá nad Sazavou. Ahí se tiene un área para que las madres puedan tener a sus hijos con ellas mientras cumplen sus sentencias. El vínculo de la maternidad puede ser la motivación más poderosa para llevar una vida mejor.

In her own words, this documentary profiles renowned opera singer Soňa Červená and how the tumultuous events of 20th-century Europe impacted her life.

Only a few girls practice the art of parkour – running and somersaulting over rooftops, free-climbing up rusted scaffolding and leaping from one wall to the next. Laura takes it all in her stride. Though as she wildly races through the streets of Prague, her thoughts are running wild too. She has a crush on Luky, but he doesn‘t show much interest in her. Laura‘s parents live apart, and her mother is desperately looking for someone new. Jealousy, misunderstandings with her best friend – Laura‘s life is full of confusion. Sometimes, when she can‘t take it anymore, fantasy worlds evolve. When hope and fear push through the cracks of reality, it gets harder to keep her life in balance.

Documentary film about Czech actress Lida Baarova, who fall in love with Joseph Goebbels in the 30s.

Documentary film about Czech actress Lida Baarova, who fall in love with Joseph Goebbels in the 30s.

Life hasn't been easy on Mallory but after the birth of her son she tries desperately to kick her drug habit, and to stop living on the street. She wants to turn her back on her dark past and help those she knows best - people on the fringes of society.

This picturesque Ukrainian farm is not surrounded by fields, but by huge housing developments. Ominous cranes overlook Natasha's land at the edge of Kiev, which year after year is being pushed deeper into a pit by new panel buildings. The brave owner protects not only acres of land, but also traditional family values, faith and ownership. From a bird's-eye view of the farm, a sharp contrast emerges between the village and the city. This peculiar family business model is set forth in a four-year chronicle from the point of view of foreign visitors who don't interfere with the way of life that the family has lived for generations.

Anna (interpretada por la prometedora estrella eslovaca Judit Bárdos) pelea por poder clasificarse para los Juegos Olímpicos de Los Ángeles. La joven se entrena día tras día bajo el ojo supervisor de su preparador, hasta que gente de las altas esferas políticas descubren su talento y deciden acelerar su carrera. Así es como Anna entra a formar parte de un proyecto de investigación de esteroides anabolizantes ilegales auspiciado por el estado. La atleta no tardará en darse cuenta de lo que de verdad ocurre cuando empiece a padecer los efectos negativos para su salud que tiene la ingesta de tales productos.

The film's main theme is obsession. An obsession with love, with art, originality, copying, with success, money and... with oneself. Sooner or later, if we lose our rational upper hand over it and let ourselves be dragged down by it, every obsession leads to destruction. But it is only when being dragged down, in spite of all the cuts and bruises, that we find a unique DELIGHT, if only for a few short moments - and what else is life really about? It is like a drug. What at first seems to be weak and trivial is capable of expanding and growing into a serious problem that can appear to be absolutely incomprehensible and absurd to those who have never experienced anything like it.

Johanka and Matyáš have an unusual home. The two live among the animals and plants of an enchanted botanical garden in the middle of the city, but this idyll is under threat. To the children’s horror, the mayor wants to build a theme park on the same spot. The Blue Tiger, an animal with magic powers, comes to their aid. Only he can protect the garden, but Johanka and Matyáš must now stop the mayor from capturing their newfound friend. MODRY TYGR is a colourful, atmospheric and imaginatively told animated fairytale that inspires the viewer to reflect on natural resources and habitats.

Honza was born in 1974 into the cheerless era of socialism in Czechoslovakia. At that time, his parents Jana and Petr lived in one room in the apartment of Jana's divorced mother and her widowed grandmother. A few years later, the family moved from Prague to Liberec where Petr found a job and a little house for the family. When Honza was born, his father began writing a family chronicle and he has continued to do so for 37 years. "Private Universe" show not only the life of one ordinary family, but also how the Czech society has changed in last four decades. Who are we, where do we come from and where do we go?

“You bet on someone in the beginning of the process and then you wait and see what life does with them.” This is how Czech director Helena Trestikova explains her long-term documentaries. Following on from the European Film Academy Award winning RENE (2008), Trestikova brings us KATKA – 14 years in the life of a drug addict. KATKA is an extraordinarily raw and uncensored character portrait of a troubled young woman living on the edge of human existence, desperately searching for love and salvation. Will she find it in the rehab? Will she find it in the arms of the man she loves? Or in the first cry of her long-desired baby? Tagging along with her through the back streets and squalors of Prague, Trestikova gets deep under the skin of a person most of us would cross the road to avoid, and shows us Katka’s profoundly human face. You might be angry with Katka, or your heart may go out to her. One thing is certain – you will never forget her.

An intimate portrait of a man on the edge of society, filmed over the course of twenty years.

Chytilová ran for Senate in 2006 as a Rovnost Šancí (The Equal Chance Party) candidate. The film is a collection of monologues by female party members from across the nation.

Ester Krumbachová - a costume designer, screenwriter, director; one of the boldest personalities of the Czech New Wave. She worked in theatre, she was a writer and an illustrator. She co-created films such as O slavnosti a hostech (1966), Sedmikrásky (1966), Vsichni dobrí rodáci (1969), Pension pro svobodné pány (1968), Valerie a týden divu (1970), Slamený klobouk (1972) and many others. In the 1960s, she was a 'pivot' of the art scene in Prague, attracting artists who were on the threshold of their career, just setting out to find their own form of self-realization. Those who underwent her tutelage remember her forever. Director Vera Chytilová talks to those who knew Ester Krumbachová, who worked with her, befriended her, loved her. She sets off on a search that is to end by answering the question: Who was Ester?