The Painted Bird 2019
A young boy wanders Eastern Europe during World War II.
A young boy wanders Eastern Europe during World War II.
Tony has been glowing since the day he was born and it causes him a lot of trouble. Just before the Christmas, a new odd girl with thick glasses moves into Tony’s house. Shelly has a strange way of expressing herself. Tony is fascinated by her but he is also being cautious at first. Together with Shelly’s flashlight, they explore their house and they are slowly getting to know each other. The kids have to join all their efforts to figure out who’s behind the circuit of dark cracks that sucks out all the light bulbs, even the daylight. It must be because of the “Spirit of the house”. A film about being different, about friendship, and first loves… But above all about light and darkness.
This is the true story of Freddy and Walter – two young Slovak Jews, who were deported to Auschwitz in 1942. On 10 April 1944, after meticulous planning, they manage to escape. While the inmates they had left behind courageously stand their ground against the Nazi officers, the two men are driven on by the hope that their evidence could save lives.
A small border town in the south of Slovakia is surprised by the sudden arrival of respected builder Mr. Hampl and his young wife Nada. She catches the eye of an equally young local teacher, Daniel, who is still recovering from his military experience in The Second World War. At first, Nada tries to resist Daniel's charm but her decision is complicated by the scent of flowering agave in the hot summer air. When the agave after 30 years of sleep finally blooms, Nada's primary decision not to give in is permanently void... A simple love story on the surface opens into to a deep, psychological study set in the hot summer of 1947. The Second World War has just ended and the Communist coup is waiting in the wings to wipe nearly a whole generation of Slovak intelligentsia from the history.
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.
Everyone knows something like this is happening. But this is the only experiment to fully demonstrate what excessive openness on the internet means. The filmmaking couple hired youthful-looking (but over 18) actresses to pretend to be prepubescent girls and communicate with strangers who approached them based on their fake accounts. They attracted dozens of men in the first ten days, then hundreds, and finally thousands...
In the heady days of the 1968 Prague Spring, a group of Czechoslovak Radio journalists risk not just their careers but their lives to distribute independent news amidst national and regional tumult. Orphaned brothers Tomáš and Pája are caught in the struggle for freedom. The elder, Tomáš, is a radio technician working at the station committed to defying the Communist Party’s censorship, overwhelming propaganda, and police harassment. When security forces pressure him to spy for them, Tomáš finds himself in a bind where he has to choose between betraying his colleagues or protecting Pája.
As World War II rages on, Villi and Colette are captured and sent to Auschwitz concentration camp. Imprisoned within separate compounds, the lovers must risk their lives to be together again.
Ema & Death’s-Head deals with the precarious border between humanism and the protection of one’s own life in situations when one excludes the other. Marika Sándorfi is hiding a Jewish boy during the dramatic era of the First Slovak State on the Slovak-Hungarian border. Šimon Holan, the boy in hiding, has a special ability to survive thanks to dreaming and a child’s fantasy.
A mysterious woman returns to her mountain village home to confront her painful past. As she tries to uncover the long-buried truth, the local villagers accuse her of witchcraft and murder.
80-year-old Ali Ungar comes across a book by a former SS officer describing his wartime activities in Slovakia. He realises his parents were executed by him. He sets out to take revenge but finds instead his 70-year-old son, Georg, a retired teacher. Georg, who had avoided his father all his life, decides to find out more about him and offers Ali to be his interpreter.
Dedicated home care nurse Vlasta attends her whimsical patients in Czech wine country and lives for her husband Lada and her daughter, but one day things change and Vlasta is forced to reach outside of her comfort zone. Drama and gentle humor intertwine as Vlasta realizes, for the first time in her life, that she might need some care, too.
Magical cave is full of salt and treasure. You can take as much salt as you want but you cannot touch the treasures as something horrible will happen if you do.
When the son of Ukrainian immigrant Irina is attacked, the whole city stands up in solidarity with her family and condemns their Roma neighbors, who allegedly committed the crime. But soon another truth starts to emerge.
The story of a young woman who takes it upon herself to save her brothers and rid them of a curse which they were put under by their mother.
New husband Adam reluctantly takes a job with state security in a totalitarian country, thus becoming a secret police agent. This "contract with the devil" helps secure a flat for the happy couple, as well as a prosperous future. However, he soon finds out that he too is under surveillance.
In the 1980s, Anna, a Czech sprinter, starts training for the Olympics. After she collapses during training, she learns she is being given steroids and decides to stop using them until her mother helps the coaches give them to her.
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)
Johanka and Matyáš have an unusual home. The two live among the animals and plants of an enchanted botanical garden in the middle of the city, but this idyll is under threat. To the children’s horror, the mayor wants to build a theme park on the same spot. The Blue Tiger, an animal with magic powers, comes to their aid. Only he can protect the garden, but Johanka and Matyáš must now stop the mayor from capturing their newfound friend. MODRY TYGR is a colourful, atmospheric and imaginatively told animated fairytale that inspires the viewer to reflect on natural resources and habitats.
Michal and Juraj, two students of a theological seminary in totalitarian Czechoslovakia, must decide if they'll choose the easier way of collaboration, or if they'll subject themselves to the surveillance of the secret police.