Ivan Horák

About Ela a rebellious artist struggling with the deep gray everyday life of Poland in the 1980's, including family problems and personal demons originating in bipolar disorder.

The film is an inquiry into contemporary forms of alternative models of partnerships. For many protagonists, polyamory, open marriage or long-term lover-to-lover relationships present a fulfilling life style, but also a struggle with misunderstanding of the society or conflicts within their own relationships. The director follows the development of relations of her protagonists over several years, while in intimate talks, she searches for the joy, striving and insecurities brought along by such unusual faces of love, revealing a need for redefining partnership in our times.

The year 2022 marks the 70th anniversary of one of the most extensive, infamous trials in post-war Czechoslovakia. Fourteen accused communist functionaries stood before the Supreme Court in Prague. Among them was Otto Šling. The court sentenced eleven to death, forfeiture of property, and loss of honorary civil rights. All defendants waived their right to appeal. Karel Šling is the last direct descendant of all eleven executed. Even at 75, he doesn't give a happy and composed impression. He is still dealing with traumas that he had and could not have had any influence over.

A mysterious woman returns to her mountain village home to confront her painful past. As she tries to uncover the long-buried truth, the local villagers accuse her of witchcraft and murder.

The life story of an unassuming, modest, yet extremely principled woman is also a dramatic portrait of a time when criticism of the regime and defense of the unjustly prosecuted was punished by imprisonment and constant surveillance from the secret state security. The story also reflects the turning point after the Velvet Revolution, when Dana Němcová briefly entered politics as an active member of the Federal Assembly, or when, in response to the war in the former Yugoslavia, she founded a counselling center for refugees and refugee women in the Czech Republic. In the film, she also meets some of those she helped again after many years.

The Hanuliaks, a couple from Slovakia, have decided to bring up their son according to Kamevéda, a complex approach to developing the child’s motor abilities and intellect. Unique in its depth of focus, this reflection on child-rearing documents a year in the life of four-year-old Miško, where not a minute is wasted since there is no room for boredom and moments of rest are merely preparation for the next achievement.

Tomáš Etzler worked for seven years as a foreign correspondent in China. He came to know a country that was developing at an admirably fast pace, was swayed by its energy, and for a moment believed that modernity could bring about political change as well. Before long, it dawned on him that many people would continue to be severely punished, and the regime would still keep most of the nation in a state of indecision and ignorance. Without neglecting that face of China today, Etzler chose to tell a story of hope in his personal documentary. Using the example of an orphanage for disabled children, he shows that the answer to collectivist brutality and ruthlessness can be mutual assistance, tolerance and empathy.

When Zdenka, a single woman in Czech Republic, started playing online games with strangers, she didn't know it would change her life. Neither did Tabish, a computer scientist a world away in Pakistan.

In 2012, violent conflicts broke out between the Muslim Rohingya and the Buddhist majority in Rakhine State on the west coast of Myanmar. The government subsequently deported Muslims and imprisoned them in a camp on the outskirts of the city. The documentary looks at the lives of neighbours on both sides.

The story of a soldier’s parents told from the perspective of their 17-year-old grandson, Janek

An epic exploration of the Czechoslovak New Wave cinema of the 1960s and 70s, structured around a series of conversations with one of its most acclaimed exponents - Closely Observed Trains director Jiří Menzel.

The Way Out tells a story of a young Romani couple, Zaneta and David, the parents of little Janicka. Their efforts to live a decent and dignified life run up against the "Romani social trap," which is racism, the society's prejudices, exclusion from opportunities to obtain legal work, the lack of necessary qualifications, difficult communication with officials, debts and the miserable life conditions connected with the environment, lifestyle and traditional values of their ethnicity. David wants to protect his family, even at the expense of committing a crime. But Zaneta finds inner strength to defy the unfavorable situation in a different way. Will they overcome the existential problems that start to take apart their relationship? Is it worthwhile for them to continue to Honor their own values and family traditions? And will their "way out" be only another "escape" for them, or a promise to change their lives?

An injury and a surprise turn in her relationship bring a young dancer's life down around her.

Documentary.In its catalogue, a Czech travel agency offers a "journey into the unknown", a tour of North Korea. That spring was the second time since 1990 that a group of Czech tourists set foot in the DPRK. The film follows twenty-seven Czechs who have decided to spend approximately 2,600 Euros on a sightseeing tour of a country which cultivates a cult of personality, maintains concentration camps for its citizens and doesn't hide its development of nuclear weapons. Foreign visitors are only allowed a view of a carefully prepared illusion, thoroughly supervised by "guides". What is more, the North Korean system is starkly reminiscent of our own past. Which emotions do our travellers experience: sympathy, nostalgia or, in contrast, happiness that "we already have this behind us"? How does a Czech person, after being accustomed to eighteen years of freedom and democracy, come to terms with the directives and restrictions of a totalitarian system?

Two students from the Czech Film Academy commission a leading advertising agency to organize a huge campaign for the opening of a new supermarket named Czech Dream. The supermarket however does not exist and is not meant to. The advertising campaign includes radio and television ads, posters, flyers with photos of fake Czech Dream products, a promotional song, an internet site, and ads in newspapers and magazines. Will people believe in it and show up for the grand opening?

A love story which unfolds over three days and nights on the outskirts of the metropolis. Seventeen-year-old Ema (Dorota Nvotová) breaks up with 'dude' Viktor (Lukás Latinák), has a fling with future pilot Karel (Mário Kubas), and meets a real man (Ondrej Vetchý), a taxi driver without a taxi. In the tangle of relationships, the characters sometimes have an opportunity to share their feelings, but sometimes they simply pass each other by. The story is told through Ema's eyes as she observes the world around her while searching for love, fun, and joy. But she's not the only one looking for happiness, nor the only one who finds it hard to avoid hurting others in the process. Ema's abandoned mother (Jana Hubinská) looks for another chance for love, while Karel's parents try to put long-lost meaning back into their marriage.