If you place one spaghetti on second spaghetti

In Czech, “vykuř!” is not only a command but now even an interjection. The film presents an elusive portrait of the ex-structural existence of a poet and modern-day king living outside the system and conventions, yet still moving through all shades of the spectrum of the meaning of this word.

Legendary Czech documentary filmmaker and head of FAMU’s documentary department Karel Vachek returns to painting after 35 years. On the way from his exhibition in Tišnov, he shares his memories and distinctive views on art and life.

Martin Konvička is a scandalous figure in the Czech media. After reading an internet article in which his performance on Wenceslas Square was featured, Aysel coming from a Muslim background, was curious about facing a person who propagates an anti-Muslim agenda and wanted to try to understand his motives.

"For 40% of sick people, doctors are unable to determine what is wrong with them. In order to be able to treat such patients, they give them false diagnoses. My mother has had a headache for more than a year. She goes from one doctor to another and listens to their diagnoses. Each has his own way of seeing. None of them can help her. Who will this film help? Whose pain is it? Why does my mother have a headache and why am I making this film about her?" (Marika Pecháčková)

A film portrait of a legend of the Czechoslovak music scene takes a look at rock keyboardist Marián Varga (1947–2017) near the end of his life when he was diagnosed with a terminal illness. She filmed this hugely introverted chain smoker during his last performances as he slowly began to lose his breath.

This film, shot on 16mm colour film, explores the life of a person who steals things according to written lists. He takes only specific things that people need – primarily senior citizens, single mothers, and other socially marginalized people. When is a crime a crime? Where does this modern 21st-century Robin Hood live, and what do his activities bring him?

The first-year workshop of the FAMU Documentary Department is led by Vít Klusák, who, together with his students, will present both the concept of the seminar as well as the films resulting from it during the 2016/17 academic year.

"As opposed to the usual trend to be a narrowly defined specialist, in an attempt at understanding the world as a whole, biologist Daniel Frynta spans the fields of zoology, ethology, psychology, anthropology, ethnography, evolution, history, religion, and culture. However, there are so many things that it slowly becomes difficult to find time for his own life." (Andran Abramjan)

A mini-portrait, treading lightly on the fringe of a gently parodic self-portrait, of the collector/gynaecologist/animal breeder/honorary consul/Dutch/Czech gentleman Oldřich Uttendorfský. Through the panopticon of an ordinary day, we are introduced to a man in whom languages, times, and cultures blend in a way that is difficult to analyse and interpret.‬

Mum is. Mum lives. There’s a scar on her chest, but don’t pay any notice. There’s a heart inside that is beating. Metal against metal. A mechanical aortic valve to replace the one that was all used up. The heart beats on. The film poem gets beneath the surface, opening up the skin through projection. It shows a process that gives new life.

A film about staging a theater performance 70 years after the events of 1948, as well as the real theater production that the whole communist coup was. Puppets seemingly without puppeteers, puppets moving about of their own free will - this is how communist comrades were and this is exactly how they’re presented in this film.  

Four consecutive linked symbolically imbued portraits of women of various ages – a 16-year old scout, a young mother of two, a mature woman, and a pensioner. In intimate proximity to the camera, each reveals their mental and emotional frame of mind and the current state of their womanhood.