Zdeněk Štěpánek

It is 5 May 1945 and the uprising against the hated German occupiers has broken out in Prague. The Czech guards open the gate of the Pankrác prison to allow the prisoners to escape en masse. Many of them are shot dead by the German guards but young Ruda (Jaromír Hanzlík) manages to run away. He is taken care of by one of the Prague fighters, concierge Kytka. Kytka hides him in the flat of the house's owner where only the young maid Karla (Jana Brejchová) is left, ordering her to take care of Ruda.

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A host of actors in the classic national fairy tale by A. Jirásek. Jirásek's "Lucerna" is the best-known and most performed of his plays. It was also used by television producers. In the second half of the 1960s, a successful transcription was created with a remarkably well-captured atmosphere of the realistic-fairytale motif of the original. The film captures the acting mastery of Jan Pivec in the role of the castle's headmaster, the musicians played by Bohuš Záhorský and Vladimír Menšík, Zdeněk Štěpánek and Josef Kemr in the roles of the watermen Ivan and Michal. The television version of Lucerna premiered on Christmas Eve 1967, and each rerun only confirms that it is an excellent production.

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Mikolás and his brother Adam end up with a young German hostage of noble blood during a robbery. While their clan prepares for the wrath of the German king, Mikolás is sent to pressure his neighbor Lazar into a defense pact. Persuasion fails and he abducts Lazar's daughter Marketa on the eve of her initiation as a nun in an act of vengeance.

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In the tense dramatic situation of a June night in 1815, a few hours before a battle that seems lost in advance, Napoleon has a choice: either go into battle and risk not winning it, or not go into battle, which of course means abdicating. To give up absolute power and offer his military experience to the people, to the republic...

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When Dr. Hahn is found murdered in the hospital’s inspection room, investigators question several suspects: his colleague and longtime lover Dr. Marie Nováková (whom he cheated on with nurse Jiřina), the nurse herself, Dr. Petera (whose career he stymied), a senile patient named Zima, and the inept clinic head. As police sift through truthful and deceptive testimonies, complex professional rivalries and personal entanglements among the hospital staff come to light.

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Five young people take off in a lighter-than-air machine at the Prague Centennial Exhibition. In an Art Nouveau style, the film consists of live action generally shot in black and white, as well as hand-drawn, stop-motion, and cutout animation. Various live-action and animated elements are often composited into the same scene.

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The king is broke, so he welcomes when a rich Spanish king asks about his daughter, Dandelion. But Dandelion does not love the king and prefers to run away from home. On the run, she meets the son of a poor moneylender, Honza, and they set out into the world together. Unfortunately, love does not save them from the princess's sad fate. Because in autumn, dandelions turn their clothes into white fluff, which the wind blows away...

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Small town policeman Holms suffers from a rather unusual problem: Because of the low crime rate, there is simply not enough to do for him. Deadly bored, he sinks into the depths of depression and requests the help of a psychiatrist. But his imagination is far more effective: In his dreams, he chases gangsters in London. Finally, some small-time crooks find a way to help "their" policeman out of his emotional misery: They steal a memorial from the market square and thus help Holms to a spectacular case.

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The work of actors on a stage makes a dreamlike parallelism between artistic immagination and the concreteness of everyday life. Tribute to Prague's Divadlo na zàbradlì, theater that has been a point of reference for Theater of the Absurd in Czechoslovakia in Sixties

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A young and ambitious engineer named Švajcar arrives at the family of a businessman as the fiancé of the factory owner's daughter. He meets his father-in-law's brother Cyril, who pretends to be invisible. The family plays this game with him so that they don't have to put him in an institution.

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At the end of May 1918, released prisoners return to the Rumburk garrison from Russian captivity, hoping that the war is over for them. The only thing they want is to get their withheld ...

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A tragicomedy set in a village where it depicts a diverse assemblage of old geezers spending the autumn of their lives in different ways. Some are amused by watching cars speeding around an obscure bend, but one agonises over both humiliating poverty (his pension is barely enough to buy the most basic food) and the rude behaviour of those closest to him.

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An outdated fireclay factory is due to close, but its long-time employees can't imagine stopping what has fed them all their lives and what they do best...

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A movie built up of three stories about life in a small Slovak town. The Prosecutor: the district attorney is a jazz orchestra soloist at the same time and that is much disliked by the local provincial society. The Defender: is about a young doctor's relation to his patient, who is open about his reactionary opinions. The Judge: it is only after long years that the old judge realizes that his own marriage is in jeopardy.

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There are fairy tales that appear on TV screens every Christmas and there are fairy tales that have somewhat fallen into oblivion and few people remember them anymore. This is one of the lesser known ones. Its plot certainly needs no further introduction. After all, the fairy tale story of the Swimmer, the charcoal-maker's son, to whom the judges attribute the hand of a royal princess born at the same moment, is one of those which are not forgotten. And the Swimmer's difficult journey in pursuit of an almost impossible task, the three golden hairs of Grandfather Allfather, who is the Sun and dislikes mankind, is as fabulous as the advice he brings to three towns beset by strange woes.

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The year is 2163. Starship Ikaria XB-1 embarks on a mission deep into space in search of alien life. During their perilous journey the crew confront the effects of a malignant dark star, the destructive legacy of the 20th century and, ultimately, the limits of their own sanity.

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Czechoslovakian Zbynek Brynych directs this psychological drama set in World War II Terezin ghetto. A dark, visual portrayal of the trials and tribulations the Theresienstadt people faced on a daily basis presented in a series of memorable stories. Their hopes and dreams unfold against the perpetual threat of deportation (or worse) by the Nazis. Based on the novel "Night and Hope" by Arnost Lustig.

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The years 1851-1856: events from the life of the writer Božena Němcová, who, because of her free-thinking views and strong patriotic feelings, comes into conflict with the society, the church and the Austrian authorities... A cold, too readable version of the writer's biography. The playwright František Pavlíček dealt with the theme of "Němcová" also later - in the times of his dissidence.

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A Czech ship's doctor accidentally meets his fellow expatriates on a tropical island. Under his influence, a sympathetic young woman, who has gone abroad with her sickly old father and her selfish and unprincipled husband, decides to return to her homeland...

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Screen adaptation of Julius Fucik's story about communist fighters.

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A young veterinarian, Jiří Klimeš, returns to his native village after graduation.

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The story of a Czech national revivalist, writer and author of a famous cookbook... The story takes us to Litomyšl in 1836. The local bourgeois society, which does not fail to interject a German word into their conversation as proof of good upbringing and better origin, slanders Mrs. Rettigová. "Rettička" not only fights for standard Czech, is a patriot, but also attracts young girls and students to her and lends them Czech books. She simply disrupts the good old order. Another sensation in the town is caused by the announcement of a planned wedding. Maiden Lenka will marry old doctor Plavec. When Mrs. Rettigová finds out about it, she invites both fiancés to her, each separately. The hunter Valenta, Lenka's former admirer, who had been abroad with his master for a long time, asked her to help him get Lenka back...

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A film medallion of actor Zdenek Stepanek.

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Even if a person grumbles about difficulties, he should realize that he will find a place where he did not want to go at all. Such an exemplary realization is also reached by a budding doctor who was assigned a remote border village as his first posting - his fiancé did not want to go to such a backwater at all. But the example of the local doctor, who is about to retire, convinces him that a good doctor is needed everywhere.

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As a young actor František Lukávec and his teacher Vladimir Tuma became enemies. František insisted that Tuma was dismissed from the school as a reactionary and hostile to the new government. Many years passed, and here they met again on the stage of a theater. František is assigned the role of Julius Fucik, Tuma plays the role of a Gestapo man in the same play. In the course of the action, the Gestapo man beats Fucik. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Tuma beats up his old enemy during the dress rehearsal. Frantisek's face is bleeding, but he will still play. The rehearsal continues...

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The film responds to the housing shortage that young couples in particular have had to deal with. This problem is also addressed by the couple Slávka and Olda. The girl gets a sublet on Hradčanské náměstí, in the large flat of the widowed pensioner Benda. Benda lived almost his whole life there, and is bound to the apartment by a thousand memories and feelings. The strange and sickly old man has to overcome his crankiness and distrust of people before he fully accepts his lodger and her husband "as his own"...

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František Brych, a principled lawyer, refuses to back the new Communist regime at his factory and grows increasingly alienated, even as his former love Irena, unhappily married to factory owner Ondřej Ráž, seeks his understanding. When he helps plan an escape over the Šumava border, the group’s panic and violence lead to murder, prompting Brych to abandon the scheme and return home with Irena.

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Concert master Karel Mašek is a drunk, as well as engineer Danda and other regular guests of the pub U Kroců. Mašek returns from the pub in the morning and promises the woman that he will stop drinking. But he failed again, and the orchestra players refuse to play with him. Danda returns home without a bag and goes to Krocs again in the morning, even though he has an important job at work. He has been degraded to subordinate job position, but he refused to admit it at home.

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The elder son of the farmer Marunáč dies of a work accident. His wife and younger brother fall in love and try to break free from their despotic father.

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Even the pre-Blohemian times were not idyllic. Even a bachelor, invited by the consuls to Rakovník to elevate the local education system, finds out. But the stingy and proud townspeople soon grow to dislike him, and even love does not develop according to his wishes.

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A morally questionable lord comes to the aid of a working class man who is to be executed for speaking out about thieving rich scoundrels sticking it to the poor.

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A biographical story about significant Czech dramatist, writer and actor Josef Kajetán Tyl.

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