Jan Němec

Jan Nemec, a leading filmmaker of the Czech New Wave, creates an original portrait of one of the most provocative artists of the 20th century: Toyen (Marie Cerminova). As a female artist, Toyen broke through the male-dominated art world to create paintings and drawings often erotic in nature. She co-founded the surrealist movement in her native Prague, survived the Nazis and the Communists, maintained artistic and personal relationships with artists Jindrich Heisler (whom she hid during WWII) and Jindrich Styrsky.

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A visit to Prague by the most powerful man in the world coincides with Jan Němec's heart operation. He captures both events in a philosophical video diary, in doing so reporting on what is probably the most important day of his life.

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Taking a cue from Franz Kafka's "Letter to My Father," this highly personal film follows Czech director Jan Nemec as he attempts to engage in a dialogue with his deceased mother. While alive, Nemec's mother had a troubled relationship with her son; this rumination seems to be Nemec's public platform for coming to terms with unresolved familial issues. The director embellishes his film by linking personal events with 20th century history.

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This controversial feature blends documentary, archival footage and fiction into an elliptical narrative in which two young people in Prague, an ancient seat for the practice of alchemy, follow the trail for the mystical philosopher's stone. History and future blend as brilliant montage sequences and fanciful leaps of the imagination work to posit questions about the legacy of the past and how it influences the individual's personal freedom and responsibility.

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In 1992, Prague is the capital of a small kingdom. The prince is supposed to choose his bride to be at a royal ball. But to everybody's surprise, he chooses an ugly cleaning-woman. She is shy and silent, but after the marriage she turns into a wild and rumbustious woman with an obstinate and stubborn mind. They both try to kill each other, but the queen is thrown into the dungeons.

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Student demonstrations in Strahov are shown in this illegally made film by a film professional with access to 35mm cameras and collaborating laboratories.

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Travelling salesman Gregor Samsa wakes to find that he's been transformed into a giant insect. This particular Franz Kafka adaptation is seen from Gregor's point of view, continuing to explore themes of alienation, family duty, and the absurdity of modern life as the Samsa clan cope with how to go on with the situation at hand.

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Medallion of the extremely successful star of the 1960s Marta Kubišová.

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Karel Gott and his band sing songs in a natural Slovak scenery, without accompanying words or connecting story.

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A unique document of the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, what began as a documentary about the liberalization of Czechoslovakia evolved into a record of the entry of Russian tanks into Prague.

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A musical portrait of the legendary Marta Kubišová, filmed just before the August 1968 invasion restricted her artistic activities.

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Three loosely-connected tales that represent different aspects of love: temptation, dreams, and adventure.

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A group of the bourgeois head for a prominent figure's birthday party. As they venture through the woods and have a picnic, they're suddenly surrounded by some suspicious strangers.

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A quintet of vignettes based on short stories by Bohumil Hrabal: an eventful trip to the motorcycle races results in drunkenness, long-winded discussions, and death; two elderly men create false biographies; insurance agents visit an eccentric painter/goat farmer and his mother; guests at a wedding reception remain oblivious to outlying misery; and a working-class boy romances a Roma girl.

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Two Jewish boys escape from a train transporting them from one concentration camp to another. Beyond themes of war and anti-Nazism, the film concerns itself with man's struggle to preserve human dignity.

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Reflecting on the memory and legacy of the Second World War.

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By the end of the second World War, three prisoners wish to escape from the train carrying them from one concentration camp to another. To make it happen, they need to get food first.

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In this fourteen-minute film from 1993, director Jan Němec pays tribute to author Arnošt Lustig, whose work he adapted for Loaf of Bread and DIAMONDS OF THE NIGHT.

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Ester Krumbachová - a costume designer, screenwriter, director; one of the boldest personalities of the Czech New Wave. She worked in theatre, she was a writer and an illustrator. She co-created films such as O slavnosti a hostech (1966), Sedmikrásky (1966), Vsichni dobrí rodáci (1969), Pension pro svobodné pány (1968), Valerie a týden divu (1970), Slamený klobouk (1972) and many others. In the 1960s, she was a 'pivot' of the art scene in Prague, attracting artists who were on the threshold of their career, just setting out to find their own form of self-realization. Those who underwent her tutelage remember her forever. Director Vera Chytilová talks to those who knew Ester Krumbachová, who worked with her, befriended her, loved her. She sets off on a search that is to end by answering the question: Who was Ester?

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Taking a cue from Franz Kafka's "Letter to My Father," this highly personal film follows Czech director Jan Nemec as he attempts to engage in a dialogue with his deceased mother. While alive, Nemec's mother had a troubled relationship with her son; this rumination seems to be Nemec's public platform for coming to terms with unresolved familial issues. The director embellishes his film by linking personal events with 20th century history.

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A labyrinthine portrait of Czech culture on the brink of a new millennium. Egon Bondy prophesies a capitalist inferno, Jim Čert admits to collaborating with the secret police, Jaroslav Foglar can’t find a bottle-opener, and Ivan Diviš makes observations about his own funeral. This is the Czech Republic in the late 90s, as detailed in Karel Vachek’s documentary.

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The subject of this film, which takes an analytical look at the life of all of us with an analytical eye, is the evil microbe that has slowly infiltrated the organism of the Czech nation. Through the intertwining fates of three couples, it evokes domestic life before November 1989, burdened by a suffocating atmosphere of unfreedom, and after November, when relatively nothing has changed because people have not changed. The bleak conclusion suggests that the plague epidemic is still ongoing.

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In 1992, Prague is the capital of a small kingdom. The prince is supposed to choose his bride to be at a royal ball. But to everybody's surprise, he chooses an ugly cleaning-woman. She is shy and silent, but after the marriage she turns into a wild and rumbustious woman with an obstinate and stubborn mind. They both try to kill each other, but the queen is thrown into the dungeons.

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A Hungarian immigrant adjusts to life in California, as his sons venture off into their own adult lives, which often clash with his old world ideas.

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Successful surgeon Tomas leaves Prague for an operation, meets a young photographer named Tereza, and brings her back with him. Tereza is surprised to learn that Tomas is already having an affair with the bohemian Sabina, but when the Soviet invasion occurs, all three flee to Switzerland. Sabina begins an affair, Tom continues womanizing, and Tereza, disgusted, returns to Czechoslovakia. Realizing his mistake, Tomas decides to chase after her.

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A lonely woman gets more than she bargained for when she begins wooing Mr Devil, an insatiable glutton who turns out to be the boyfriend from Hell.

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A unique document of the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, what began as a documentary about the liberalization of Czechoslovakia evolved into a record of the entry of Russian tanks into Prague.

Open details →

A musical portrait of the legendary Marta Kubišová, filmed just before the August 1968 invasion restricted her artistic activities.

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Documentary about the film academy in Prague and the Czech Film in 1965.

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Two stories from the lives of border guards. In the story "The Pursuit", an experienced border guard and his young and inexperienced colleague follow the tracks of ski boots in a snowstorm. The second story, Wandering, is about a frontiersman whose wife wants to go inland with their child.

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It's nighttime in Prague, 21 August 1968. Soviet troops and tanks are occupying the city - random attacks, soldiers shooting, bodies lying dead on the sidewalk. With an impromptu crew, the director (Karel Roden) captures some unique evidence - material which is, however, worthless in occupied Prague; it has to be shown to the rest of the world. So, while the Soviets are concocting false reports of heartfelt receptions without military resistance for propaganda purposes, the director sets off on a risky trip across the closed Czech-Austrian border to Vienna.

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A neon heart installed above Prague Castle illuminated the city for the last three months of Václav Havel’s presidency in an artist’s tribute to his extraordinary service. His last major undertaking was hosting the NATO summit in 2002 and Němec was granted extraordinary access to film it. Set to make a “special poetic film”, it took Němec years to process what he had witnessed – George W. Bush creating an alliance to invade Iraq. It may then be the director’s revenge to point his camera lens democratically at everyone involved with the summit, giving the same screen time to kitchen and waiting staff, musicians, security detail and NATO protesters, as to the heads of states and attending dignitaries. Havel however, became as much of a subject as the president on screen, and the film’s narrator, providing commentary in his own voice from the distance of a few years after he left the office.

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Jan Nemec, a leading filmmaker of the Czech New Wave, creates an original portrait of one of the most provocative artists of the 20th century: Toyen (Marie Cerminova). As a female artist, Toyen broke through the male-dominated art world to create paintings and drawings often erotic in nature. She co-founded the surrealist movement in her native Prague, survived the Nazis and the Communists, maintained artistic and personal relationships with artists Jindrich Heisler (whom she hid during WWII) and Jindrich Styrsky.

Open details →

A visit to Prague by the most powerful man in the world coincides with Jan Němec's heart operation. He captures both events in a philosophical video diary, in doing so reporting on what is probably the most important day of his life.

Open details →

Taking a cue from Franz Kafka's "Letter to My Father," this highly personal film follows Czech director Jan Nemec as he attempts to engage in a dialogue with his deceased mother. While alive, Nemec's mother had a troubled relationship with her son; this rumination seems to be Nemec's public platform for coming to terms with unresolved familial issues. The director embellishes his film by linking personal events with 20th century history.

Open details →

This controversial feature blends documentary, archival footage and fiction into an elliptical narrative in which two young people in Prague, an ancient seat for the practice of alchemy, follow the trail for the mystical philosopher's stone. History and future blend as brilliant montage sequences and fanciful leaps of the imagination work to posit questions about the legacy of the past and how it influences the individual's personal freedom and responsibility.

Open details →

Open details →

Open details →

In 1992, Prague is the capital of a small kingdom. The prince is supposed to choose his bride to be at a royal ball. But to everybody's surprise, he chooses an ugly cleaning-woman. She is shy and silent, but after the marriage she turns into a wild and rumbustious woman with an obstinate and stubborn mind. They both try to kill each other, but the queen is thrown into the dungeons.

Open details →

Travelling salesman Gregor Samsa wakes to find that he's been transformed into a giant insect. This particular Franz Kafka adaptation is seen from Gregor's point of view, continuing to explore themes of alienation, family duty, and the absurdity of modern life as the Samsa clan cope with how to go on with the situation at hand.

Open details →

Open details →

A lonely woman gets more than she bargained for when she begins wooing Mr Devil, an insatiable glutton who turns out to be the boyfriend from Hell.

Open details →

Medallion of the extremely successful star of the 1960s Marta Kubišová.

Open details →

A musical portrait of the legendary Marta Kubišová, filmed just before the August 1968 invasion restricted her artistic activities.

Open details →

Three loosely-connected tales that represent different aspects of love: temptation, dreams, and adventure.

Open details →

A group of the bourgeois head for a prominent figure's birthday party. As they venture through the woods and have a picnic, they're suddenly surrounded by some suspicious strangers.

Open details →

A quintet of vignettes based on short stories by Bohumil Hrabal: an eventful trip to the motorcycle races results in drunkenness, long-winded discussions, and death; two elderly men create false biographies; insurance agents visit an eccentric painter/goat farmer and his mother; guests at a wedding reception remain oblivious to outlying misery; and a working-class boy romances a Roma girl.

Open details →

Two Jewish boys escape from a train transporting them from one concentration camp to another. Beyond themes of war and anti-Nazism, the film concerns itself with man's struggle to preserve human dignity.

Open details →

Reflecting on the memory and legacy of the Second World War.

Open details →

By the end of the second World War, three prisoners wish to escape from the train carrying them from one concentration camp to another. To make it happen, they need to get food first.

Open details →