Věra Pištěková

The film is a metaphor for the Cold War. It depicts two neighbouring nations: peace loving Fortuna and the not so peaceful land of the Steel City.

Historical depiction of the events preceding the political murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, would-be emperor of the Austro-Hungarian throne, in Sarajevo, June 28, 1914. A World War would start there, that some claim has not yet ended - merely changed fighting grounds once in a while

Zofie and Dominika, two girls of very different temperaments, become friends during hop-picking volunteer work in the summer. Zofie (Jaroslava Schallerová) is serious to the point of reticence and she is delighted with her friendship with Dominika. For the self-assured and superficial Dominika (Irena Svárová) the whole thing is just a momentary whim. When she leaves the work camp before everybody else, she doesn't even say goodbye to Zofie. The two girls meet again after the holidays as first-year students at medical school, and become close again during the nursing techniques class.

In Vražda v hotelu Excelsior, the interwar period homicide detective squad from Prague investigates the murder of a wealthy woman, Mrs Matoušová, which threatens the reputation of the eponymous luxury hotel popular with Prague’s elite. Even the retired police inspector Mrázek (František Filipovský), who works at the Excelsior as a hotel detective, is unable to help at first. Although the investigation inevitably uncovers the hotel staff’s scheming, Vacátko and his team unerringly follow the trail that leads them to the murderer…

In a suburban villa, a woman of means is murdered. Police Superintendent Zdychynec from the Prague Liben neighborhood reports the case to Police Councilman Vacátko, upon whose order an investigation is launched immediately. Zdychynec begins to suspect the wooer of his own daughter, a handsome dragoon named Rudi, of the crime. In Rudi's absence, Zdychynec searches his rented room in the apartment of the elegant Mrs Dragicová. All his findings - among others, sand left on Rudi's jackboots and a decent amount of money in his bedside table - convince the superintendent that he is following the right lead, especially when Rudi refuses to say where he was at the time of the murder.

In the morning twilight of Prague, the dead body of the safe-breaker Toufar is found floating on the river Vltava with a knife in his back. Police inspectors visit Toufar's lover, the prostitute Anna Kulatá (Jirina Bohdalová), nicknamed Umbrella, and it is apparent that the moment before she opened the door of her flat, someone fled through the window. Umbrella is summoned for examination to the head of the criminal police - Police Councilman Vacátko Jaroslav Marvan, but although shocked by the photograph of the dead man, she does not confess to anything. Before Toufar, Umbrella lived with the safe-breaker Penicka (Radoslav Brzobohatý), who loved her very much and made her quit her street trade. But when he was sentenced to three years' imprisonment, Umbrella began to live with the brute Toufar, who chased her to street again. In the case of the murder, Penicka is therefore the prime suspect.

Kinoautomat was the world's first interactive movie, conceived by Radúz Činčera for the Czechoslovak Pavilion at Expo '67 in Montreal. At nine points during the film the action stops, and a moderator appears on stage to ask the audience to choose between two scenes; following an audience vote, the chosen scene is played.

Even in the "enlightened" 60. years filmmakers like to play spies. In the grand-world environment, Luxury hotel in Karlovy Vary the sophisticated charade unfolds, in which several foreign agents interested in the famous Austrian scientist, the discoverer of the artificial protein. Endangered man fortunately never notice danger around him. His protection was entrusted to the mysterious madame Elizabeth, amongst agents famed as the ' 006, in fact, working for the State security... As a parody, perhaps the movie succeeded, but hardly convincing anyone - and this is despite scriptwriting participation of the renowned Jan Procházka.

Spring 1943: A three-member group of resistance fighters flies from a Soviet military airport into the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia to establish contacts with an illegal communist center in the occupied territory.