Czech Films 2017–2018

David Ondříček’s TV film looks back at one of the country's greatest mining tragedies. In 1961 a fire broke out in the Dukla mine near Ostrava and killed 108 miners. This rousing family drama heads slowly towards a needless and incomprehensible disaster that resonates in the harsh region to this very day.

Can the creative process be more important than the work itself? Director Jan Švankmajer follows a troupe of nonprofessional actors rehearsing for a theatre performance in a small town while, at the same time, inviting the viewer onto the stage as well, where surrealism’s legacy is interwoven with the magic of human dreams, and where most of the questions that arise don’t have rational answers.

Who suffers more, the son of the victim or the son of the murderer? Presented at the Berlinale, Martin Šulík’s coproduction drama follows a journey taken by two dissimilar men who are bound together by the tragedy of the Holocaust. Starring Jiří Menzel and Peter Simonischek, a familiar face from the successful Toni Erdmann.

The real Laika didn’t survive her journey into outer space. In this puppet musical, however, the plucky dog manages to reach a remote planet that man has yet to conquer – for the time being, at any rate. Animator Aurel Klimt looks to the Czech puppet tradition forged by Jiří Trnka to create a tale about the unexpected champions of the Space Race.

Markétka is happy when she can talk, paint, or ride the bus. The 16-year-old girl suffers from Rett syndrome, and thus her mental capacity is that of a two-year-old. Documentarist Miroslav Janek looks once again with empathy at the world of people who are “other” and at those closest to them who are tasked with contemplating their future.

“We got nothing to complain about; other places it’s even worse” – or so goes the standard mantra repeated by teenagers in the border town of Varnsdorf. Employing uncommonly intimate detail, Lukáš Kokeš and Klára Tasovská’s documentary looks into the problems that plague teenagers living on the social fringes – problems often unseen by the rest of the country.

The memorial to the victims of the First World War in Ancona, Italy, whose stairs have a magnificent view of waves breaking on the Adriatic Sea. A couple returning to the place they honeymooned 40 years earlier. A visually elegant miniature directed by world-renowned choreographer Jiří Kylián, where words are unnecessary because dance says it all.

Eleven-year-old Jakub can’t stand his stepsister or his domineering grandma. To make matters worse he finds out that his workhorse of a mother lied to him about his father, who is certainly not navigating any maritime vessel, as she would have him believe. Family ties are sorely put to the test in Jakub Šmíd’s understated drama, an adaptation of the award-winning novella To Disappear by Petra Soukupová.

Creative fervour and the genesis of several legendary Czech films are mapped out in this documentary portrayal of a man whose life was defined by his passion for film. Jiří Brdečka became celebrated for his animation works and also for his screenplays written for the likes of Jan Werich and Oldřich Lipský. Documentarist Miroslav Janek allows us a glimpse into the filmmaker’s private world.

“We’ll become legends of our time,” states one of the members of the Slovak Recruits paramilitary group, which puts young people through inhumane drills and aims to “defend and preserve the nation”. Jan Gebert’s documentary, screened at the Berlinale, observes a youngster with authoritarian inclinations, part of a growing nationalism in unexpected age groups.