Terezín gravediggers

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.

Alois and Ladislav Rašín, who paid for their lives for their patriotic endeavors, did not get the recognition they deserved, and after the communist takeover in 1948 their names were erased from memory. Their forgotten lives are now recalled in a historical docudrama featuring Alois Rašín’s great-granddaughter Karolina Breitenmoser. 

"One Jew meets another. Heeeey, how's it going? Jew know, could be ghetta." A film as a living anthology of jokes about foreigners and minorities, and their analysis from a historical, social, and political point of view. Czechs' views of other nations, ethnic groups, and minorities through contemporary jokes. A whirlwind of beer-hall jokes, put under the microscope by academics in white suits.

A documentary portrayal of tennis player Radek Štěpánek takes a look at his determination during tennis matches and offers an insight into the private life of this fascinating sports figure. The time-lapse documentary includes comments of his friends, e.g. Petr Čech, Pavel Nedvěd and Jaromír Jágr.

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.

Humans are the only living beings that consciously destroy the environment and landscape in which they live. Perhaps it is because we are incapable of nurturing our inner landscape, which we also often consciously destroy. The inner and outer landscapes are communicating vessels that reflect one another, and yoga can be one way of cultivating them.

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.

An unsentimental look at the harsh traveler’s life of a group of friends who set out on an adventure to Lake Baikal even though two of them are bound to wheelchairs. A unique travelogue narrated by Petr Čtvrtníček.

A survey of the historical and contemporary significance of the work of Bohuslav Fuchs at home and abroad, this documentary describes the birth of the unique tradition of Brno’s Functionalism through the life of its main representatives, whose most famous buildings in Brno include the Zeman Café and the Hotel Avion.

Rock legend Vladimír Mišík has his own little planet. It was discovered in 1995 by Czech astronomers from Kleť Observatory who named it in Mišík’s honour. And it is mostly on this very planet that Jitka Němcová’s new documentary about Vladimír Mišík and his beautiful songs takes place, reminiscing on all the weird things that happened in his life and recounting a rather thrilling search.

On the one hand, one of the most distinctive representatives of Czech alternative theatre, whose dramatic range spans several artistic categories. On the other hand, the child of dissidents who were forced to leave their homeland and adapt to conditions in a foreign land. Both sides to Halka Třešňáková come together in a profession that allows her to express her personal feelings. This portrait of an artist, actress and performer documents her artistic work as well as the circumstances that influenced her adolescence in a family that stood up against the totalitarian regime.

The path of Petr Zuska to grand dance and choreography led from the Prague Chamber Ballet, the ballet ensemble of the National Theatre, the Bayerisches Staatsballett in Munich and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens to the post of the head of the National Theatre Ballet where he spent the last 15 years. This documentary maps his work during his last year as the head of the National Theatre Ballet.