The Painted Bird

The Painted Bird 2019

7.10

A young boy wanders Eastern Europe during World War II.

2019

The Hungarian Dressmaker

The Hungarian Dressmaker 2024

1

It’s the 1940s. The Slovak state witnesses the rise of nationalism and it’s not an auspicious time for minorities. The turbulent social mood also impacts the widow Marika, who loses her job in an Aryanised dressmaker’s shop. Given the increasing anti-Hungarian sentiment she shuts herself away, particularly since she is harbouring a little Jewish boy. Despite this she still finds herself singled out by two men: a German Nazi officer and a captain of Slovakia’s Hlinka Guard. This drama by Slovak director Iveta Grófová is an adaptation of the novella of the same name by Peter Krištúfek, which conjures up the dramatic atmosphere of wartime Slovakia. The story of a fragmented era, which forces the protagonists to confront complex dilemmas, is told not only through words, but also by way of a powerful visual language. Sandra Hezinová (kviff.com)

2024

The Teacher

The Teacher 2016

6.90

The principal of an elementary school calls a special parents meeting after it’s alleged that the seemingly empathetic and kindly-looking teacher Mrs. Drazděchová uses her students to manipulate their parents.

2016

Watchmakerʼs Apprentice

Watchmakerʼs Apprentice 2019

5.10

Urban, an orphan, serves a greedy master watchmaker as an apprentice. When Urban grows up, he falls in love with the watchmaker's daughter Laura and wants to marry her. Before this can happen, the master sends his apprentice out into the world with the task of looking for a mythical watch that can warn of death. No one knows if the watch even exists, but if Urban doesn't bring it back, Laura will never be his wife. The watchmaker's apprentice therefore sets out on a long journey full of hardships, which he must overcome with bravery, skill and a good heart.

2019

The Banger

The Banger 2020

3.50

The fictional town of Šlukdorf. Here lives a car mechanic who calls himself Bourák. He loves rock and roll, dance, his own gelled hair and, despite being in his fifties, simply “refuses to grow up”. He forgets he has a wife. The only things he loves are Elvis, Cadillacs and anything connected with 1950s America. His daughter Kamila is fed up with life in the squalid town and with her irresponsible father. She is fed up with working in a casino with no windows, open round the clock; that her mother has caught the eye of the local gangster, who is clearly a dimwit; with her father behaving as if he has gone completely barmy. Kamila realizes she has to do something about it. She has to confront her parents with reality, as cruel as that may seem. A black comedy about everything that can happen because of a summer storm, a set of golf clubs, rock and roll, and one incredibly angry daughter.

2020

The Oddsockeaters

The Oddsockeaters 2016

5.70

Oddsockeaters are small invisible creatures, responsible for socks that go missing when we only have one left from a pair. But unlike them, Seed’s gang wants to have a pair. In the end, they began their fight between two sets of values.

2016

Insect

Insect 2018

5.80

The Dung Beetle is late, the Parasite is asleep and Mrs Larva is more interested in her knitting than the director’s instructions. It’s clear: this amateur theatre company has a long way to go before they can perform their version of The Insect Play, a famous satirical work from 1922 by the brothers Karel and Josef Čapek which features insects with decidedly human traits: greed, egocentrism, jealousy.

2018

Emma in Love

Emma in Love 2021

5.80

Passionate Emma and impulsive but introverted Tomáš fall in love. They are like two missing puzzle pieces coming together. But Emma's pornographic past inevitably catches up with them.

2021

Actress

Actress 2024

1

Theodora Remundová’s documentary portrait looks at Iva Janžurová’s dramatic and comedic roles in both film and theater, as well as the roles she has played in her family and in social and political life. The director (Janžurová’s daughter) has created a film filled with the truthfulness, sincerity, and capacity for self-reflection of a woman who has devoted her life to acting. The use of clearly staged scenes is combined with an openly acknowledged effort to avoid the kinds of clichés usually found in biographical documentaries to create an organic whole that provides an overview of Janžurová’s pivotal roles while also sharing highly personal and intimate moments from her life. Vít Kořínek (kviff.com)

2024

Toman

Toman 2018

6.20

This fascinating historical drama looks at the life of "the Czech Schindler," Zdenek Toman, a controversial figure who was an unsavory politician and dubious entrepreneur, but also the savior of hundreds of Eastern European Jews.

2018

Brothers

Brothers 2023

6.50

Based on the true story of brothers Josef and Ctirad Mašín who, in 1953, tried to escape communist Czechoslovakia to join the US army in West Berlin.

2023

Wilson City

Wilson City 2015

6.20

Comedy inspired by paperback crime novels tells the story of an adventurous search for a mysterious murderer who just after the end of the First World War has begun a rampage in Wilson City, a jerkwater town somewhere in Eastern Europe. The investigation is being led by an inhomogeneous pair of detectives - a greenhorn and local police cadet named Eisner and an experienced FBI officer Food, who has been sent to Europe by US President Woodrow Wilson himself.

2015

World Between Us

World Between Us 2024

1

Marie Tomanová travelled from Mikulov to the USA as an au pair, and today she shoots campaigns for fashion brands such as Nike, Instagram, or for the fashion magazines such as Vogue CS. However, her name is better known abroad than in her native country, which provided few opportunities for the young painter. Paradoxically, it was only in New York, far from home, that she was able to grow up and find herself - a transition greatly supported by Marie’s partner in professional and personal life, art historian Thomas Beachdel. Tomanová touches the world in a different way, with a rush of positive emotions, an immediate connection, acting as a medium through which the energy of the portrait-sitter passes.

2024

Meky

Meky 2020

3.90

The film tells about complete dedication to music, about faith in his own path, which was often different from what everyone recommended. About how great social revolutions and life's upheavals can be overcome with elegance.

2020

Aristocrat in the Boil

Aristocrat in the Boil 2024

6.00

Count Frank Kostka, his wife Vivien and their daughter Marie live in their ancestral castle Kostka. They are helped by the housekeeper Mrs. Tichá, the handyman Krása and the Castellan Josef. The original interest of visitors to the castle in the Curse of Comtesse Marie is no longer the same as before, which does not bother Maria at all – at least she has enough time for her Max, a nobleman from the next Castle Hvězda. Frank, however, is at a loss, there is not enough money either for salaries or for the necessary repairs. And just then, Bendy's lawyer's daughter Deniska appears, stirring up the tranquil waters of the ancestral home...

2024

Místa

Místa 2014

4.80

A coming of age story about love, loss and revenge centers around two teenage friends, Adam and Marek, whose aimless lives in a small town are suddenly disrupted by the appearance of Anna, the troubled daughter of a rich and influential local businessman. Initially her free spirit energizes Adam but soon he finds himself thrown into a spiraling chain of events. His innocence is about to be abruptly replaced with the adult emotions of guilt, fear and revenge.

2014