Don’t Be Angry, Ukraine

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.

A look at a forgotten chapter in modern Czech history. The “armed fist of the working class,” formed from various factory guard units on the instigation of the Czechoslovak Communist Party, began operating under the guidance of the Central Union Committee in May 1945. After the communist takeover in 1948, the People’s Militia was sent upon orders of the Communist Party to “defend” the borders or to act against students, farmers, the church, demonstrators protesting the currency reform. Their actions against anti-regime gatherings in 1969 resulted in several deaths. They also acted brutally during the demonstrations in Prague in 1988 and 1989.

This film compares the fates of two newborns, whose parents either could not or did not want to care for them. Whilst one is placed into a temporary guardian’s care immediately after birth, the other is sent to a residential care home for infants. The documentary explores the system in place for handling unwanted newborns. At the same time, it also raises several controversial issues.

Although it is still a legal grey area, an increasing number of children in the Czech Republic are born to surrogate mothers who act as something like an incubator for the genetic material of other couples. But can you give birth to a child, hand it to someone else, and then go on with your life as if nothing has happened? What if the child “doesn’t turn out right” or if the couple has second thoughts about parenthood?

This documentary film depicts the events of the Lidice tragedy in the practically unknown story of 30 Terezin prisoners. Until now, the story of Lidice has been recalled mainly through the testimonies of Lidice women, who returned to a plundered and burned home after the Second World War. The murder of Lidice men seemed to have ended their story once and for all. The women had remained silent since that horrific night when their husbands were shot and placed in a mass grave, and would only recall the lives of their husbands through mourning.

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. 

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.

Director, cinematographer and photographer Jaroslav Brabec has been mapping the domestic art scene for many years, as evidenced by his photobook Orbis Artis. Based on the book, Czech Television commissioned a documentary series of the same name, introducing Czech artists whose work we should respect and be familiar with.

Their parents came to Czechoslovakia in August 1968 along with the occupying forces. Today, these “children of Milovice” find themselves on opposing sides in the Russo-Ukrainian conflict. These “brothers,” destined for “friendship for all eternity,” are now shooting at one another. How do the children of the former officers stationed in Milovice see the contemporary Czech Republic and Russia? 

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.”

This six-episode climbing travelogue follows the world's best sports climber as he breaks records. Adam Ondra not only chooses both known and unknown locations in the former Yugoslavia countries, but also travels to Romania, Greece and Albania. He meets with the local walls and climbers who help him identify the most extreme and previously unexplored rocky paths.

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.