Stories of 20th Century - Frontier Guards

Just as we are experiencing the unification of culture and society, so is nature. We are experiencing the greatest ecological collapse of species in recorded history. Birds and plants are disappearing, but perhaps the ones experiencing the greatest decline are butterflies. These insects are so delicate that even the smallest change in the environment can affect their populations. As a result of fields being consolidated and traditional farming becoming abandoned, this once common species has begun to appear much less frequently in the countryside to the point where they’ve become literally stranded on small “islands”. For some species, it has gotten so bad that we can find the “last of the Mohicans” on just one hill. What do butterflies need to survive and what should their habitat look like? 

Three stories about the youngest generation of “digital natives” for whom the Internet became an endless source of entertainment and communication as well as of new dangers. Most today’s children can use a computer or a mobile phone before they learn to tie shoelaces and ride a bicycle. New generations of children who spent much more time in a virtual world than on a playground are growing up all over the world.

Architect Josef Pleskot can be described as one of the best known and most respected contemporary Czech architects. Pleskot has earned many awards since the 1990s, and his designs regularly represent Czech architecture at international exhibitions.

Where do xenophobic attitudes in society come from, and why have they been on the rise in the Czech society? Documentary filmmaker Apolena Rychlíková tries to find an answer in Brno, where the country’s neo-Nazis have come together on 1 May 2015 for a Europe-wide neo-Nazi and fascist event they are calling “For a Pure Europe.”

A true story about the unlikely love of a middle-aged woman from a middle-class family and a scam artist. The risk of death and hope in the form of a newborn child enter into their relationship from the least probable direction. Another chance is a perceptive psychological portrayal of a woman, her partner, and other loved ones, and at the same time a riveting testimony to the struggle for life and its meaning.

Is it possible to share your life with someone who has a different faith than you? What are the pitfalls of such a relationship, and how can it be enriching? A new series about people who show that differences don’t have to be divisive. Festival audiences will see the third episode of the series.

A documentary look at this current political issue presents unique scenes of life in the annexed territory where foreign journalists and television crews are not allowed. The film is a mosaic portrait of several men and women, whose everyday lives have been affected by the political crisis between Ukraine and Russia. Just as international pressure and sanctions have made the Crimean peninsula a de facto island, so too are the supporters and opponents of Russian annexation isolated (pen)insulas in search of their identity within the sea of a divided society. 

Martin Rajniš, the “enfant terrible” of Czech architecture, refuses to accept the current state of his field and of society in general. He is just as “terrible” as the French architect Pierre Charles L’Enfant, who designed Washington, D.C., for President Thomas Jefferson. According to one version, the expression “enfant terrible” was inspired by the fact that L’Enfant was extremely difficult to work with. Today, however, it often describes someone original, daring, and direct. The documentary captures Rajniš’s inspirational approach and his working process – both at his studio in Prague and at his country cottage in the village of Maxov in the Jizera Mountains.

They have spent nearly their entire childhood growing up in institutions. They have no home and no family, no idea where they will leave or how they will earn a living. Lukáš wants to be a famous hip-hopper, Simona is planning to get a sex-change operation, and Jarda would like to have a big family. This longitudinal documentary follows the lives of three young people as they leave the children’s home where they have been living, and try to go it alone.

He's one of the longest-serving psychiatrists and psychotherapists in the world. At the age of eighty, he still actively works at three clinics, writes a respected blog and publishes popular bestselling books. His dream was to become a general practitioner in Šumava, instead he ended up in the “crazy house”. He was behind the creation of many bluebooks for Czech dissidents and he was the first person in our nation's history to begin devoting himself to psychosomatic medicine. Above all, he is a people person and puts his life in the service of humankind in all its bizarre forms.

A cinematic portrait of three siblings and a society that unites and divides many in a similar fashion as Hayata, Osamu and Tomia. The intertwining of the often-conflicting visions of the three brothers with the history of their family and the attitudes of the other protagonists of the film is a concrete testimony to how the political situation is influenced by personal and social experiences. The film, thus, not only suggests why we are in today's political constellation, but it also reports on the state of contemporary social opinion, both in relation to their authorities and their citizens.

Perhaps everyone knows of the footage of the crackdown on demonstrators at Národní třída on November 17th, 1989. Jan Slezák, Milan Danišovič and Jiří Laňka were involved in suppressing the demonstration on November 17th, 1989, albeit to a different degree. Jan Slezák was the commander of the company of the Emergency Regiment for Public Security and at the time of the crackdown, he waited in the emergency room as a backup. Milan Danišovič commanded the entire intervention. Jiří Laňka was a member of the special unit of the Ministry of the Interior, known as the "red berets."