That Moment: Classmates Among the Tanks

Vlasta Šrůtková has lived through many ups and down not just in her own life, but in the life of her country. She is exceptionally vital for her age, living on Prague’s Kampa Island, a perfect place for reflecting on Czech history, identity, the nation. Her life is an exceptionally strong story in which the central event of our country are also key moments in her own life. 

After the successful and Ji.hlava MFDF Award-winning docuseries, Enclosed World, director Karel Žalud returns to prison once again. This time, he follows the story of Dan Lauf, a young warden working in a small prison in Teplice who leaves his pregnant wife for 30 days to help out at the large prison in Stráž pod Ralskem. His personal story shows not only the prison environment and the specific demands of Lauf's profession, but also the problems of the current Czech prison system.

In May 2013, Czech Television marked the 60th anniversary of its first broadcast. The journalistic block “Television Celebration” represents the joint efforts of several beginning documentary filmmakers – students from FAMU who, under the guidance of their instructor Vít Klusák, have attempted to capture the Czech Republic’s largest television institutions during its celebrations in a fresh manner, objectively and occasionally critically as well. The various segments were directed by Lumír Košař, Adéla Komrzýová, Karolína Peroutková, Zdeněk Chaloupka, Martina Ševčíková and Tereza Freyová. Produced by Czech Television in cooperation with FAMU.

Andy, Petra and Bára. Three life stories that met in prison in Světlá nad Sázavou. This is the prison where mothers can do their time together with their children, because a maternal bond could provide the strongest incentive to lead a better and more responsible life.

Professor Josef Koutecký founded, built up and institutionalised a brand new medical field – paediatric oncology – first in Czechoslovakia, later in the Czech Republic. He has been the head of a clinic, a dean and a vice-chancellor and has trained a vast number of paediatric oncologists. But this documentary is not about him as a professor but rather about him as a man. It is not about his successes but about love and faith. It is not about an elderly man but about someone who has always stood upright.

This documentary film about people who "no longer have to pretend that they don't exist" was made as a gift from Czech Television for the Jedlička Institute for the Disabled to mark the institute's 100th anniversary. Over the course of just under an hour, we see and experience the everyday joyful, comical, embarrassing, and extraordinary situations of several people who have one thing in common: the institute that everybody calls by its nickname "Jedle" ("fir"). What kind of institute is it? How has it changed over the past 100 years? What has it given to and gained from the people who have passed through it? The various micro-stories culminate in a wedding and birth. Most of the protagonists are in wheelchairs, but that doesn't keep them from cutting loose.

Pavel Landovský is not only an enfant terrible of Czech acting, but also the author of the successful play Hoteliér. More than 40 years after its creation, director Jan Kačer decides that he and Landovský will put it on again. Joining him will be Vladimír Pucholt, Josef Abrhám and Libuše Šafránková. But Kačer isn't interested as much in bringing these famous actors back before audiences as in trying to pull Landovský out of the lethargy caused by his state of health.

The life of Lída Baarová possesses all the features of a Greek tragedy. Beauty, love, fame, betrayal, rejection, punishment, escape, loss of home, and finally reconciliation at a wise old age. And all this is accompanied by the dramatic political events of the 20th century, which touched everyone, all the more so this women of exceptional beauty, ambition, and fame.

This black-and-white film combines re-enactments with original footage from Operation Neptune, one of the Czechoslovak secret police’s first attempts at media manipulation, during which a group of reporters comes across secret Nazi documents at the bottom of a lake. The film’s focus, however, is on the struggle between a skeptical journalist and a high-ranking police official, and the failed attempt at revealing the state-sponsored disinformation.

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.”

Issues related to gender equality in the Czech society are discussed on many levels, with much stronger intensity and on a much larger scale than what was previously imaginable. Helped by growing media coverage, several recently founded associations and organizations try to raise awareness towards such issues among general public. These groups are often rejected by our society, much more often than politicians with their controversial statements. The documentary tries to stir the still waters of stereotypical attitudes through the “parades” of the male and female members of feminist groups.

This film is a portrayal of one of the leading Czech directors, Miloš Forman. Forman, a creator and filmmaker behind the Oscar-winning film, Amadeus, and Flying Over the Cuckoo's Nest, an adventurous man with great charisma who's not afraid to doubt himself. This documentary by directors Helena Třeštíková and Jakub Hejna summarizes Forman's life journey where both fame and the wounds of fate collide with personal discovery and uncertainty. It is a collage of often unseen, private and official archives, as well as an autobiographical recollection spoken by the director's son, Petr Forman.