Věra Bílá

Jakub, a dreamer and budding magician, juggles between parcels and services rendered to the villagers. His eyes cross that of the beautiful gypsy Jolanka. Together, they will try to live a first and big love, despite the pressure of their respective communities.

The drama called I Love, You Love was made in 1980 but because of the absurd ideological ban, the film entered cinemas nine years later. Pišta is an unmarried man who works at a freight wagon which carries letters and parcels. Alcohol helps him to overcome his handicap of being short and not good-looking. He wishes he had a woman, but the woman he really wants, ageing Viera who reloads the cargoes, has a soft spot for another man. So, Pišta has nobody and nothing, except for senile mother who sometimes fails to recognize him. The film received Silver Bear for Best Director at the International Film Festival in Berlin.

A period drama set in the early years of the 20th century. Josef, a former construction worker who delighted in dancing on girders high above the city, who now sweeps up at the circus. Once the big top's owner spots the young roustabout defying gravity on the trapeze, however, he endeavors to pair Josef with his aerialist daughter Alice in a perilous sky-high pas de deux. Offers a romantic view of big top life, with a moth-eaten angel in his feathered, tattered costume.

A vivid documentary portrait of Véra Bílá (1954-2019), a Gypsy singer acclaimed in the international music world. The film explores Romany culture and what it means to be part of a marginalized minority group. She was dubbed the Ella Fitzgerald of Romani music. The Czech singer enjoyed international success in the late Nineties when she was signed to the German record label BMG.

Frantisek is a deaf man who has spent years in prison for the apparent murder of a man he believed was threatening his then girlfriend, Liza. Once released, Frantisek begins to search for Liza, but the task proves harder than he hoped.

A naive village girl, Valentýna, arrives in Prague and, under dramatic circumstances, becomes reluctantly entangled in the Karlín underworld as a novice prostitute controlled by the slimy gangster Pavouk and his bumbling henchman Milan. She repeatedly refuses the genuine support offered by the incorruptible mounted policeman Viktor Sokol, even as two eccentric observers serve as a choric commentary on the absurdities around them. Through parodic and poetic scenes, ranging from western-inspired mounted police sequences to a surreal “war” over exporting plastic gnomes, the film satirizes contemporary Czech society.

Showcasing the best in international documentaries, Storyville has developed an enviable reputation since its inception more than a decade ago. Screening over 340 films, from some 70 different countries, the strand has garnered a staggering array of awards: five Oscars, 15 Griersons, three Peabodys and two International Emmys. In true, unique, Storyville style, the new series promises to deliver the strand's usual eclectic mix of compelling stories from across the globe.