Students Present
The selection of student films from film schools, from the Czech Republic, or elsewhere.
With a special selection of films made in Cuba:
In keeping with the spirit of learning by doing, which is characteristic of the EICTV – International Film and Television School of Cuba –, the Documentary Department organises filmmaking workshops with filmmakers whose talent is breaking new ground in contemporary filmmaking.
Three weeks of intense collaboration with Gianfranco Rosi enabled young Latin American and European filmmakers to find their own personal reasons for filming stories in a country other than their own.
Anchoring oneself in the Cuban universe, both bewildering and stimulating, requires an open mind and sensitivity, the only condition for inventing inspired images – for being a filmmaker.
*Make a Wish as the City Falls
The layering of memories of four witnesses takes shape as a self-ironic fossil of a town disappearing under the weight of coal mining. When home falls, what is it that we wish to preserve?
director: Eliška Dobnerová
original title: *Padá město, něco si přej
country: Czech Republic
year: 2025
running time: 8 min.
A bike, a plane and a cart
Julito slips away every afternoon in San Tranquilino, Cuba. The hours pass slowly until it's time to return home. On an island that seems frozen in time, he’s the only one who holds on.
director: Jhonatan Yamunaque
original title: Una bici, un avión y una carreta
country: Cuba, Peru
year: 2025
running time: 10 min.
And the storm dreamed of horses
As a massive hurricane bears down on Cuba, as society collapses around them, a cowboy and his mare mourn the loss of her stillborn foal. While the herd scatters into the wild brush and the sky darkens with fury, they hold on to a fragile rhythm of care and routine. In their sleep, storm and sorrow blur together, where the violence of nature reflects the crumbling of a world, pushing them toward an uncertain, fragmented tomorrow.
director: Coralie Hina Gourdon
original title: Sueños de caballo en tiempo de huracán
country: Cuba, French Polynesia, France
year: 2025
running time: 22 min.
BANGER FROM THE HOOD
The film is an artistic reflection on the gentrification of Prague’s District 7, Holešovice. In this utterly captivating piece, an entire building takes off into the sky, lifted by inflatable balloons.
director: hugo wiesner
original title: Holešovice
country: Czech Republic
year: 2025
running time: 9 min.
BIG BOYS
The film explores the fragile quest for masculinity in the modern world. A group of men undergoes a course designed to permanently transform their approach to life, to women, and to themselves.
director: Hugo Wiesner
original title: Chlapi
country: Czech Republic
year: 2025
running time: 10 min.
Can You Breathe?
The film is a space for the meeting of two places, between which the director seeks a connection. She attempts to embrace the roots from which she had to distance herself in order to truly breathe. The film explores different worlds and the tension between tradition and the desire for freedom.
director: Lucie Zpěváková
original title: Můžeš dýchat?
country: Czech Republic
year: 2025
running time: 9 min.
Hard Water
Rhythm, routine, and merging with the water… Swimmer David prepares every day for the upcoming competitions. This reportage immerses itself in his world – a space of focus where breath, touch, and rhythm take precedence, and where sight gives way to other senses.
director: Lucie Zpěváková
original title: Tvrdost vody
country: Czech Republic, Ukraine
year: 2025
running time: 7 min.
Heaven is a place on Earth
Imagine a group of friends who met through the climate movement. For several years, you have fought alongside others for a fairer future, but little has significantly changed, leaving you somewhat exhausted. Now, you go away for a weekend at a cottage to rest—and during that time, you find yourselves in an apocalypse for a single day.
A collective film, a first-year exercise at the Department of Documentary Film, exploring friendship in the shadow of an uncertain future.
director: Valerie Vítů
original title: Nebe je místo na Zemi
country: Czech Republic
year: 2025
running time: 12 min.
Invisible Work
Preparation for an exhibition, the rush, and the invisible work. A first-year exercise from the Department of Documentary Film at FAMU, “Workflow.” Reproductive work is the supportive, maintenance, and caring activity that enables productive and creative work to exist. The term emerged in discussions about the functioning of households and the unpaid labor predominantly carried out by women. However, reproductive work can be found wherever something needs to be maintained in an organized way. It is generally not perceived as attractive or prestigious and often leads to burnout – it is extraordinarily demanding, yet remains invisible.
director: Valerie Vítů
original title: Neviditelná práce
country: Czech Republic
year: 2025
running time: 3 min.
Never Ends
Under the shadow of a regime frozen in time, two young Cubans find refuge in a lair of iron and gears. There, a strange rivalry emerges against an invisible presence that, in its silence, marks every aspect of their existence.
director: Mateo Cabeza
original title: Never Ends
country: Cuba
year: 2025
running time: 5 min.
Practical italian grammar
Miguel and his family are preparing to emigrate from Cuba to Italy where his mother already lives. While they wait, they begin to take the first step in the life of every migrant: learning the language of the country they want to go to.
director: Daniel Cortés
original title: Gramática práctica italiana
country: Cuba, Colombia
year: 2025
running time: 12 min.
Rosa, Ángel and Hurricane Rafael
During one of the most severe crises in Cuba's history, a mother and her son must face yet another challenge: the passing of Hurricane Rafael.
director: Pedro Rocha
original title: Rosa, Ángel y el huracán Rafael
country: Brazil
year: 2025
running time: 8 min.
Silly Queue
This film is a first-year project from FAMU’s Department of Documentary Film, shot on 16mm. It was inspired by the lines at the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival.
director: Eliška Dobnerová
original title: Fronta nanic
country: Czech Republic
year: 2025
running time: 2 min.
Stopped time
Evening falls and the children play in a town that seems suspended between the ruins of the past and an uncertain future.
director: Ariagna Nuviola
original title: TIempo detenido
country: Cuba
year: 2025
running time: 15 min.
There, light never fades
Each year, nearly 450,000 Cubans leave their country. They cross the sea to escape a worn-out political regime, shortages, and hurricanes. In Havana, some mourn those who depart, while those who remain look for other ways to escape.
director: Marius Larrayadieu
original title: Allá, la luz no se va
country: France, Cuba
year: 2025
running time: 32 min.
Those Were the Days
In 1987, a film school was founded next to a working-class town in western Cuba. For over three decades, hundreds of film students documented the lives of its people. Qué tiempos aquellos takes us to Pueblo Textil to explore what these memories mean today, what emotions they stir, and how they transform over time. A documentary about memory as both personal and collective experience.
director: Ernesto Yitux
original title: Qué tempos aquellos
country: Cuba, Ecuador
year: 2025
running time: 17 min.
