Let's play soldiers

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?

A documentary observing the fortunes of the Al-Araqarqeeb , a village that has been already destroyed 111 times. The Bedouin settlement was needed for military training, so the army ordered its evacuation in 1951. The inhabitants were not permitted to come back even after the date that was set for them to return. The village is being repeatedly demolished by the state of Israel since 2010.  The struggle between the state and its citizens continues.

This portrait of the filmmaker’s grandfather, stage manager of the Laterna Magika and slightly eccentric intellectual, is stylised into a surreal performance. In a small space, the film builds an original formal structure that freely oscillates between playfulness and illustration, childishness and seriousness, the Buddhistic here and now and sharp patterns of thoughtful post-production.

A young Russian patriot realises that the Czech Republic is the best place to start a career in the Russian intelligence services. She meets with famous speakers who can share some information about Russian spies working in Prague, and she does her best to contact the Russian Embassy to offer them her services.

Under the surface of the modern state of Israel there lie stories that are largely hidden from European visitors. One of these is the fate of Palestinian Bedouins in underdeveloped areas living in unrecognized villages. A meditatively experimental film by an Israeli-Czech team captures the atmopshere of these places and the tragic fates of some of their inhabitants.

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.

"Igor´s Great Emotion is a game for one of the most talented post-1989 directors. Contemporary self-reflection of daredevil deeds mixes with reconstructed fragments of laboriously etherized memory. But by calling oneself a “spiritual seeker”, one cannot bury the sleeping demons forever – and so during clinical death, only instant spiritual séances can bring the director back. An attempt at laying off the sedatives and resurrecting a director who ostentatiously killed himself by publishing Diary, or: Death of the Director in order to make the world his empire through the inclusion of the occult." (Jan Strejcovský)

Professor Jiří Myslík offers an engaging lecture on the physical criteria for capturing images on black and white media. His interpretation of the exposure of human skin is accompanied by playful illustrations that place the firm firmly in the celebrated tradition of Czechoslovak educational films.

The joys and sorrows of artist František Skála is captured in this brightly colored film. Member of the Sklep theatre group, founding member of the Tvrdohlaví art group and the secret group B. K. S.  is renowned for his creations from found and natural objects, creating new works in his Prague atelier and at his rural farm, demonstrating against the government, and performing with Tros Sketos.

With an international arrest warrant out on him, Russian artist Oleg Vorotnikov of the radical art group Vojna (Military Service), infamous for his politically engaged protest performances, is an alluring enigma for the young documentary filmmaking student. She attempts to learn more about him and his family through a series of (attempts at) meetings in Berlin and Prague.

A portrait of performance artist, sculptor, artist, teacher, woman and mother Lenka Klodová. In several segments, each filmed in a different manner, the director tries to create an intimate portrait of her subject. She speaks to her and calls out, and hopes for an answer.