Czech
see all genres ›Already a notable center of quality cinema in the late silent and early sound era, Czechoslovakia (and, later, the Czech Republic) saw the rise of several famous animators (notably Jirí Trnka, Jan Svankmajer and Jirí Barta) and an extraordinary flowering of talent in a 1960s New Wave (Věra Chytilová, Miloš Forman, Jaromil Jireš, Jiří Menzel, Jan Němec and others) later crushed by censorious Soviet invasion. More recently, the now-separate Czech and Slovak nations have continued to produce a mix of populist genre and exportable art-house films.
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Genres / International / European / Czech
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Hank and Asha
In this award-winning romance, an Indian woman studying in Prague and a lonely New Yorker begin an unconventional correspondence through video letters, two strangers searching for deeper connection in a hyper-connected world. Before long their online relationship grows intimate as they share...Watch Movie
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Body Without Soul
From director Wiktor Grodecki, this startling and disturbing feature is a graphic insider's view of the seedy but burgeoning East Europe industry that trades in nubile young men. The film introduces us to one of the adults (now jailed) who exploits Prague’s youth; the city’s...Watch Movie
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The Ister
In 1942, at the height of World War II, Martin Heidegger, the most influential philosopher of the twentieth century, delivered a series of lectures on "The Ister," Friedrich Hölderlin's poem about the Danube River (which referred to the waterway by its ancient Greek name). Heidegger had achieved...Watch Movie
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Vanessa
The tantalizing Olivia Pascal stars as the titular teen who journeys from curious convent virgin to prisoner of a lavish Hong Kong bordello. But along the way, she'll experience the sensual and shocking extremes of pleasure, pain and even black magic perversion. In a world where respectable men...Watch Movie
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Not Angels But Angels
Like no film you’ve ever seen, NOT ANGELS BUT ANGELS is a chilling account of fragile youth caught in the grasp of Earth’s oldest trade. Prague’s economic boom and recently won political freedom have transformed that beautiful city into a new mecca for both Eastern and Western...Watch Movie
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The Country Teacher
A gifted young teacher takes a job teaching natural sciences at a grammar school in the country. Here he makes the acquaintance of a woman and her troubled seventeen-year-old son. The teacher has no romantic interest in the woman but they quickly form a strong friendship, each...Watch Movie
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Woyzeck
Werner Herzog had long been fascinated by Georg Büchner’s 19th-century play (and 1920s opera by Alban Berg) about a soldier pushed to the point of madness and he finally got his chance to film it mere days after wrapping NOSFERATU. With his crew intact and star Klaus Kinski in the lead, everyone...Watch Movie
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Protektor
Prague, 1938. Emil, a radio reporter, is married to the beautiful Hana, an actress whose new film has catapulted her into fame. As the Nazis come to power, however, Hana's Jewish heritage precipitates her fall from stardom to the bottom of the social ladder. In order to protect her, Emil...Watch Movie
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Burning Bush
Agnieszka Holland is an extraordinarily gifted and versatile filmmaker and although the events depicted in BURNING BUSH occurred forty-five years ago, the issues it explores are entirely relevant today. Acclaimed director Agnieszka Holland returns to a pivotal time in modern Czech history: the...Watch Movie
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The Last Flight of Petr Ginz
By 14 he had written five novels and penned a diary about the Nazi occupation of Prague. By 16 he had produced 170 drawings and paintings, edited an underground magazine in the Jewish ghetto, written numerous short stories and had walked to the gas chamber at Auschwitz. Slight...Watch Movie
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Mandragora
Sixteen year old Marek (Mirek Caslavka) leaves his dreary small-town life for the beautiful but treacherous streets of Prague, a city where everything can be had for a price. He is quickly lured by a greasy pimp into selling his body to the many tourists who flock to the city for its cathedrals,...Watch Movie
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Alice
When Alice follows the White Rabbit into Wonderland, so begins this dream expedition into the astonishing landscape of childhood, through many dangerous adventures, and ultimately to Alice's trial before the King and Queen of Hearts. Czech animator Jan Svankmajer has created a masterpiece of...Watch Movie
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Darkness Light Darkness
A corporeal and Kafkaesque claymation from Czech surrealist Jan Svankmajer. Two hands find each other in a room and begin molding themselves into a human figure. Different body parts come knocking, some more insistently than others, until the small space is stuffed with the...Watch Movie
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Stolen Art
In New York City in 1978, an unknown Czech artist by the name of Pavel Novak held an exhibit at WX Gallery entitled "Stolen Art," which featured paintings by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, Gustave Courbet, Vincent van Gogh and other great masters, all reproduced with astonishing accuracy by...Watch Movie
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The Pied Piper of Hamelin
Winner of multiple festival awards, Jiří Barta’s bold adaptation of the classic fairy tale stands comparison to expressionist landmarks like THE GOLEM and THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI. In terms of visual design, his medieval village plagued by rats refers directly back to those...Watch Movie
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The Ossuary
Though best known for his surreal animated films, this live action short is one of Jan Svankmajer’s most disquieting visions of death and decay. The film explores the elaborate ossuary at Sedlec Monastery. On the soundtrack (unlike the alternate version with a remarkable score by Zdeněk Liška), a...Watch Movie
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Import/Export
A nurse from the Ukraine searches for a better life in the West, while an unemployed security guard from Austria heads East for the same reason. Two individual fates heading in two opposite directions. Both are looking for work, a new beginning, an existence, life: Olga, who comes from the...Watch Movie
