29th Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival

24. 10.–2. 11. 2025
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Czech Television


 

A Place for the Soul

A Place for the Soul

What helps teenagers with serious mental health problems return to normal life? A mosaic of stories from children and parents who have experienced hospitalization at the Opařany Children's Psychiatric Hospital shows the types of treatment that can help children return to a full life even after serious problems such as depression, suicidal tendencies, self-harm, or eating disorders.
director: Ivana Pauerová Miloševič
original title: Místo pro duši
country: Czech Republic
year: 2025
running time: 47 min.
Czech Television Documentaries, Ji.hlava OnlineThe film already had its Czech Premiere
Anna K.

Anna K.

This documentary tells the story of a singer who became an icon of the Czech music scene during her career. The film captures her journey from her childhood in the Krkonoše Mountains, through her theatrical beginnings at Semafor, to her first successes on the music scene, as well as her battle with serious illness. In this film, Anna K demonstrates not only her strength and determination, but also her love of music, people, nature, and life. Director Vít Bělohradský's film reflects on the sources of her inspiration and strength, while also authentically capturing her inherent fragility and sensitivity.
director: Vít Bělohradský
original title: Anna K.
country: Czech Republic
year: 2025
running time: 64 min.
Czech Television Documentaries, Ji.hlava OnlineThe film already had its Czech Premiere
Born for Africa

Born for Africa

A portrait of Joy Adamson, a remarkable woman, author of the bestseller about the fate of the lioness Elsa and a pioneer in the protection of wild animals, who was born in Opava exactly 115 years ago. The documentary uses unique, newly discovered footage from her life.
director: Michael Kaboš
original title: Zrozena pro Afriku
country: Czech Republic
year: 2025
running time: 61 min.
Czech Television Documentaries, Ji.hlava OnlineThe film already had its Czech Premiere
Fentanyl – Cure and Killer

Fentanyl – Cure and Killer

A substance that saves lives and destroys them at the same time. How does fentanyl work in medicine and who does it help with pain? And what are the fates of those who have fallen victim to this powerful and addictive drug?
director: Ivo Bystřičan
original title: Fentanyl – lék i zabiják
country: Czech Republic
year: 2025
running time: 25 min.
Czech Television Documentaries, Ji.hlava OnlineThe film already had its Czech Premiere
Our Generation: Generation X

Our Generation: Generation X

Generation X is also known as Husák's children. They were born between 1965 and 1980 under a strict socialist regime, but as adults they are now experiencing freedom with all that it brings and takes away. Their experience with pervasive propaganda, censorship, and lack of freedom has made them rather reserved pessimists. In the free environment of the 1990s, they generally experience euphoria from their newly acquired freedom, but individuals' ideas about what will come next and where the world should go after the fall of the Iron Curtain differ. Paradoxically, the same experience becomes something that both unites and divides them.
director: Jana Počtová
original title: Naše generace: Generace X
country: Czech Republic
year: 2024
running time: 26 min.
Czech Television Documentaries, Ji.hlava OnlineThe film already had its Czech Premiere
Our Generation: Generation Z

Our Generation: Generation Z

Generation Z was born between 1996 and 2012. They are growing up in a world of fundamental change and crisis. The global financial crisis, climate crisis, geopolitical crises, terrorism, and the proximity of war are all bringing about a paradigm shift, and Generation Z is keenly aware of this and wants to change the world for the better. They are more sensitive, but they also feel a stronger sense of responsibility for the future world. They live online and quickly accept and absorb new knowledge. They take a critical view of the old order and do not consider its immutability to be dogma. This brings them into sharp conflict with their parents' and grandparents' generation. The older generation cannot always accept their world, which has changed much more rapidly than in previous decades, leading to greater conflict. Some older people mockingly call young people snowflakes, and young people respond by labeling them boomers.
director: Jana Počtová
original title: Naše generace: Generace Z
country: Czech Republic
year: 2024
running time: 25 min.
Czech Television Documentaries, Ji.hlava OnlineThe film already had its Czech Premiere
Return to the Golden Steppe

Return to the Golden Steppe

After hundreds of years, thanks to Prague Zoo, the last species of wild horse, Przewalski's horse, is returning home to Kazakhstan. In June 2024, two military aircraft took off with a special cargo on board. Seven Przewalski's horses are heading via Istanbul and Baku to the old abandoned airport of Arkalyk in central Kazakhstan. Thus begins the return of wild horses to the Golden Steppe, which was originally their home.
director: Prokop Pithart
original title: Návrat do Zlaté stepi
country: Czech Republic
year: 2025
running time: 25 min.
Czech Television Documentaries, Ji.hlava OnlineThe film already had its Czech Premiere
Smoke

Smoke

Why does the Czech justice system impose harsh penalties on cannabis growers? Are these penalties proportionate and fair, or is it time to review them? ... Czech prisons are bursting at the seams.
director: Robin Kvapil
original title: Smoke
country: Czech Republic
year: 2025
running time: 51 min.
Czech Television Documentaries, Ji.hlava OnlineThe film already had its Czech Premiere
Survive Your Head

Survive Your Head

The number of anxiety, depression, and suicide cases among young people is growing. Parents are often helpless and don't know where to seek help. There is a shortage of mental health professionals for children and adolescents in Czechia, and waiting times can be several months long. The heroes and heroines of this documentary also struggle with mental health issues. Karolína, Jakub, Kristýna, and Michael, all in their twenties, offer an open and honest insight into what it is like to experience a mental crisis. At the same time, together with their families and loved ones, they explain what has helped them and continues to help them lead a fulfilling life.
director: Petr Hátle
original title: Přežít svou hlavu
country: Czech Republic
year: 2025
running time: 52 min.
Czech Television Documentaries, Ji.hlava OnlineThe film already had its Czech Premiere
Troublemaking Women: Is Politics a Woman’s Game?

Troublemaking Women: Is Politics a Woman’s Game?

The Czech Republic has not had a female head of state since the reign of Maria Theresa, and women are generally scarce in politics. Society still perceives them differently, especially in public and political life. How does this affect the passing of laws, and why are women needed? In this episode, we will see the stories of two women who decided to promote women's rights in real politics. During the First Republic, Milada Horáková unsuccessfully attempted to change the law on the equal relationship between men and women in marriage, while Johanna Nejedlová's activities helped to pass a new definition of rape. What difficulties do women encounter in active politics?
director: Kateřina Kořínková Sobotková
original title: Potížistky: Je politika rodu ženského?
country: Czech Republic
year: 2025
running time: 15 min.
Czech Television Documentaries, Ji.hlava OnlineThe film already had its Czech Premiere
Troublemaking Women: To Be the Model or Make the Art?

Troublemaking Women: To Be the Model or Make the Art?

For a long time, women were primarily objects of male desire and inspiration. Works of art frequently depicted naked female bodies. But does a woman have to be naked to be truly seen? How are women changing the established view of the female body through their art? A radical stance was taken by a prominent film personality, a woman who managed to assert herself in a male-dominated world through her determination: film director Věra Chytilová. And her followers today are springing up like mushrooms after rain. Through her films, drawings, and rap songs, artist Marie Lukáčová undermines today's stereotypes about (not only) women's bodies.
director: Bibiana Beňová
original title: Potížistky: Stát modelem, nebo dělat umění?
country: Czech Republic
year: 2025
running time: 16 min.
Czech Television Documentaries, Ji.hlava OnlineThe film already had its Czech Premiere
Voluntarily Infertile

Voluntarily Infertile

Three men who underwent vasectomies comment on their reasons for the procedure. Many children, convenient contraception, and the decision to live without children. These are purely human reasons, even if controversial for some. The topic of voluntary male infertility is still taboo in Czech society; vasectomies have only been legal here for 11 years, but the number of procedures is increasing every year. Andrologist Lukáš Bittner, biologist Stanislav Komárek, and gynecologist Helena Máslová have different opinions on the subject. Should we be afraid that men will voluntarily become infertile, or is this a modern method of contraception that does not leave this burden solely on women?
director: Natálie Císařovská
original title: Dobrovolně neplodný
country: Czech Republic
year: 2025
running time: 26 min.
Czech Television Documentaries, Ji.hlava OnlineThe film already had its Czech Premiere
We Want to Live on Our Own

We Want to Live on Our Own

A documentary romance about two young people with disabilities who are trying to stand on their own two feet... Ondra and Lucka don't have it easy in life; they both have mental disabilities that limit their ability to find independent or shared housing. At the same time, like most people their age, they naturally want to leave the nest, live on their own without parental supervision, and have a relationship. The Rytmus organization offers them the opportunity to try out all these desires in the form of a training apartment. Will Lucka and Ondra be able to accommodate each other in their shared apartment? Will their parents be able to accept the fact that their disabled child is actually an adult? And will their relationship survive everyday life together? The documentary was produced by Czech Television in collaboration with the organization Rytmus – od klienta k občanovi, z.ú.
director: Linda Kallistová Jablonská
original title: Chceme bydlet sami
country: Czech Republic
year: 2025
running time: 26 min.
Czech Television Documentaries, Ji.hlava OnlineThe film already had its Czech Premiere
We, the Builders of the New Republic - 1st. part

We, the Builders of the New Republic - 1st. part

No more war, humiliation, and injustice! The building of post-war Czechoslovakia in 1945–1948 in a mosaic of unique diary entries and previously unpublished family films... The developments that Czechoslovakia underwent after the end of World War II were rapid and full of major events. First, there was a ruthless reckoning with traitors and collaborators. The principle of collective guilt was applied to citizens of German nationality, and almost all of them were forcibly expelled beyond the borders of Czechoslovakia. Changes also took place in the economy, which experienced its first wave of nationalization. The Communists played a major role among the political parties, as many saw them as a guarantee that the problems of the First Republic and the horrors of the Protectorate would never be repeated. They confirmed their dominant position in the May 1946 elections. Klement Gottwald and the Communists were given the green light. And what did the citizens of Czechoslovakia think about this?
director: Ondřej Veverka
original title: My, budovatelé nové republiky - 1.díl
country: Czech Republic
year: 2025
running time: 54 min.
Czech Television Documentaries, Ji.hlava OnlineThe film already had its Czech Premiere
You’re Not My Mom

You’re Not My Mom

The director's candid confession offers an unusually honest look at foster parenting. It reveals the difficult journey she and her adopted daughter have been through, and together with other foster parents, she searches for answers that would help her understand the sudden separation on the threshold of her daughter's adulthood. She tries to cope with feelings of helplessness, personal failure, and endless love. But above all, the film is a story of all children who struggle with the consequences of abandonment and the upheaval of their basic certainties at the very beginning of their lives. They carry a burden they did not choose and which exceeds all their childish strength. It is their foster parents who can help them bear it. This candid exploration of foster parenting hides nothing and gets to the heart of the matter, yet above all it shows the power of the bond of unconditional parental love, regardless of whether we call it foster or biological.
director: Markéta Nešlehová
original title: Nejseš moje máma
country: Czech Republic
year: 2025
running time: 52 min.
Czech Television Documentaries, Ji.hlava OnlineThe film already had its Czech Premiere
Zone of Interest: It Will Change a Little

Zone of Interest: It Will Change a Little

Lucie is raising a transgender daughter and organises a support group for other families of transgender adolescents. What do children need in this situation, what do their parents need, and what should schools do? This new documentary film follows on from the drama series Ratolesti.
director: Kateř Tureček
original title: Zóna zájmu: Trošku se to pozmění
country: Czech Republic
year: 2025
running time: 25 min.
Czech Television Documentaries, Ji.hlava OnlineThe film already had its Czech Premiere
Zone of Interest: Refugees

Zone of Interest: Refugees

Is it harder for a Ukrainian mother to find a job in her field or to find a school for her children? Natálie Císařovská's documentary follows war refugees Maria, Luda, and Olga in their efforts to integrate in Czechia.
director: Natálie Císařovská
original title: Zóna zájmu: Uprchlice
country: Czech Republic
year: 2025
running time: 25 min.
Czech Television Documentaries, Ji.hlava OnlineThe film already had its Czech Premiere
Zone of Interest: Under the Cover of a Small Town

Zone of Interest: Under the Cover of a Small Town

Who cares for vulnerable children in Tábor? While their parents face social problems, the children spend their time on their cell phones and on the streets... The setting of the drama series Ratolesti through the documentary lens of director I. Bystřičan.
director: Ivo Bystřičan
original title: Zóna zájmu: Pod pokličkou maloměsta
country: Czech Republic
year: 2025
running time: 25 min.
Czech Television Documentaries, Ji.hlava OnlineThe film already had its Czech Premiere

Contact

CONTACT US

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Karlovo náměstí 285/19
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Czech Republic

e-mail: info@ji-hlava.cz

Festival partners

Ministerstvo kultury
Fond kinematografie
Město Jihlava
Kraj Vysočina
Creative Europe Media
Česká televize
Český rozhlas
Aktuálně.cz
Respekt
Dafilms

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