Bohuslav Ličman

Set in Prague during the years leading up to World War II, this family saga tells the story of a cobbler named Vincenc Bursik (Vladimir Mensik), who uproots his clan from the country to the city, only to suffer the loss of his wife and the failure of his shoe business within months. When his daughter moves away to go live with a wealthy businessman as his mistress, Vincenc is left to take care of his two sons, who spend their days in a secret garden vying for the affections of a teenage girl.

The heroes of this absurd comedy, full of confusion and humor are Dzharda Zemanek and Frantisek Liska.

The film is a metaphor for the Cold War. It depicts two neighbouring nations: peace loving Fortuna and the not so peaceful land of the Steel City.

ComiBaran, a protestant blacksmith arrives in the little village of Lakotice to kill Sekal, a cruel Nazi collaborator.

It is the summer of 1945. A party of young people are enjoying the beginning of a new life to the full. For them this is the year one. One of them, law student Pavel, is more attracted to film than to law. With his eight-millimeter camera, he films everything that catches his attention. One day he captures an interesting face on film, a girl with an air of mystery. Pavel visits the girl, whose name is Helena, and meets hers and her elder energetic sister Olga. From Olga, he learns that the girls have spent the years of German occupation in a concentration camp and cannot forget the horrors they have lived through.

A frightening atmosphere, full of chilling dampness and darkness, follows the fate of a desperate searcher who tries in vain to unravel the supposed secret of the altarpiece...

This downbeat, grim drama about three brothers who are reunited at their mother's funeral is actually visually as dark as its story, making it difficult at times to clearly distinguish a scene. These brothers are not particularly exceptional as people go, but at least they have branched out into separate vocations in their lives. One brother is a doctor, another is a criminal, and the third is a bus driver. Like others in Europe, they suffered through World War II, yet no matter what their backgrounds and experiences, their interpersonal relationships are not exactly gripping drama.

During World War II, dogs were trained in special centres for guard duty in concentration camps. However, one of the prisoners domesticates a female German Shepherd, which saves his life during his escape.

It is 1920, political unrest is growing in Prague and the Social Democrats are about to betray their historic mission by prioritising their own selfish interests instead of those of the working class. An extortionist scandal falls on the Social Democratic deputy Jandák, forcing him to renounce his convictions. Under these circumstances, the seriously ill Hungarian revolutionary Kerekes, who had to flee his homeland, is hiding in Prague...

This feature film based on the events of 1938 is a chronicle of the futile efforts of the Czechoslovak president Edvard Benes (Jirí Pleskot), politicians and ordinary citizens, to save the independence and the territorial integrity of the state from the advance of Hitler's Germany. On the 29th of March 1938 the leader of the Sudeten Germans Henlein (Werner Ehrlicher) has a meeting with Hitler (Gunnar Möller). Hitler orders him to intensify pressure on the Czechoslovak government. On the 24th of April in Carlsbad, the Sudetendeutsche Partei (Sudeten German Party) decides upon eight demands that are unacceptable to the Czechoslovak President, since they would ultimately lead to the break-up of the Republic. Benes still shows a certain willingness to negotiate, and Henlein resents this. The Germans are determined to make further negotiations impossible through incidents and violence.

The theatre director encounters the disinterest and irresponsibility of the acting troupe, whose members are scheming and looking for side income. The tired and sick artist wants to finish his work at any cost.

Symbols and political analogies abound in this dramatically frustrating first work by a recent film-school graduate. In the story, Vojtech has survived World War II in a Czech prison following an unjust sentence. Now he is free, and the world is full of possibilities.

The forest worker František Hrubý, a poor, hard-working man, lives with his granddaughter in a lonely cottage. Despite being in his sixties, he is still a furiant who does not let anyone talk to him, but talks to everyone himself. His desire to interfere in the lives of his companion, daughter, granddaughter or friends is rooted in his fear of loneliness and death. He also can't accept that the work he has loved all his life has become too much of a strain...

On 20th of April 1945 the Soviet army launches its attack on Berlin. The end has come for Nazi Germany and Hitler decides to commit suicide. In Prague K.H. Frank (Nazi Secretary of State and Chief of police in the Protectorate of Bohemia a Moravia) discusses with his commanders how to transform the city into an impregnable fortress, but the Praguers do not intend to wait any longer. From the early hours of 4th of May people start assembling in the streets and tearing down German signs. On the next day, the 5th of May, the uprising begins.

In May 1945, a woman in Marienbad reports a murder - committed in 1933 against the German emigrant Professor Lessing. She also names the murderer. Against the wishes of his superior, who does not feel responsible for this case - it was a fascist femicide - Inspector Šedý picks up the trail and arrests the murderer, the German Eckert. Eckert was a fugitive at the trial in 1933, and now the evidence is no longer available. Nevertheless, Šedý does everything he can to convict him. He finds witnesses who support him - anti-fascists, but also former collaborators who want to clear themselves. Reconstructing the case at the crime scene, Šedý is able to prove that Eckert was at least an accessory. He is convicted. After his release from prison, Eckert goes to West Germany, where he demands compensation from his former clients.

In an unusual, apolitical approach, director Jaromil Jires has fashioned a standard drama that features an older lawyer with failing health who goes to practice in the countryside. His series of odd court cases reveals more about the human condition than about law. In one of these litigations a wayward nephew has cheated his elderly aunt out of her savings. In court, the nephew insists the money was a gift, but his aunt explains she only gave him the money as a loan. Although the lawyer technically wins the case, everything of value seems lost in the meantime. His services are paid for in rabbits because the aunt has no currency, and in the end, the nephew cons his aunt into parting with her savings anyway. Other cases expose similar types of petty corruption.

The problematic protagonist is the head designer of a housing association who wants to make a profit at any cost. His unwitting opponent is a bar pianist who accidentally witnesses the murder of a young man and sets out to investigate on his own. An old-world and somewhat comical figure, he poignantly interferes with the cops' work, only to find that he is the one who is credited with catching the perpetrator...

The Czech film Svítalo All Night was made to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the liberation of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Army and is dedicated to all those who fought and gave their lives in Prague in the May Uprising of 1945. Behind the historical events, the creators see mainly their simple, unassuming participants. Thus, we are presented with a number of apt portraits, whether it is the central hero Dr. Soukup and nurse Daniela on the side of the fighting Czechs, or a captain and a simple private in a Red Army unit coming to the aid of the fighting Prague, or an old, war-weary German major, who only realises the senselessness of the war at the sight of a fanatical, cynical lieutenant for whom Nazi ideology represents the meaning of life.

Josef Laufer portrays Egon Erwin Kisch in two daring journalistic adventures: in “Zuřivý reportér,” Kisch goes undercover in a poverty lodging house, uncovers a tattoo’s dark backstory and deciphers a secret telegram hinting at war via the legend of the black rose; in “Lovci senzací,” he pursues sensational leads and exposes hidden truths, proving why he was rightly called “the raging reporter.”

The distressing fate of the Czech great Jan Amos Komenský, forced to leave his homeland after the White Mountain disaster. It depicts his encounters with various European personalities of the 17th century - the Queen of Sweden, artists and scientists. It emphasises the hero's nobility, but also his inner resilience, which allowed him to overcome many personal and professional tragedies. The parable of The Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart becomes part of the story. However, Comenius's concept is sculpturally lifeless and, in particular, the religious dimension is "erased" from it. The simplistic biography therefore does not avoid schoolboyish dryness.

A modern fairy tale that takes place in the present.

Chronicle of frontier division Czech police (SNB) in the years 1946 - 1949.

At the beginning was the Slovak television series Lekár umierajúceho czasu (Doctor of Dying Time), dedicated to the Rudolphine-era scientist Jan Jesenius. He ended up on the scaffold along with other gentlemen after losing the anti-Habsburg uprising. When director Miloslav Luther conceived the idea of making an abridged version of the footage for cinema, he had to not only rebuild the storyline but also dub it into Czech. However, the result was only an illustrative puzzle, describing the various stages of the hero's turbulent life.

Okres na severu is a Czechoslovak/Czech TV series filmed by Evžen Sokolovský in 1981.