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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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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Beauty in Trouble
BEAUTY IN TROUBLE explores a young woman’s romantic dilemma: torn between a primal connection and the need to provide for her children, she loves two men. Set against the back drop of the recent floods in Prague, BEAUTY IN TROUBLE is full of unexpected twists, humor and...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. Told with unflinching honesty, BODY WITHOUT SOUL provides an explicit view of the exploitation,...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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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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Operation Filmmaker
In the wake of "Operation Iraqi Freedom," American actor Liev Schreiber had an idealistic notion: to rescue an Iraqi film student from the rubble of his country and bring him to the West to intern on a Hollywood movie. It promised to be a heartwarming tale, a small victory out...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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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. Directed by leading Czech filmmaker Wiktor Grodecki, MANDRAGORA is based on true stories with a mostly non-professional...Watch Movie
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The Zookeeper
Sam Neill stars as a dedicated zookeeper in this emotionally and politically charged drama that explores the depths of human nature in the time of war. A city zoo in an eastern European country is abandoned when war ravages the city. Ludovic (Neill), a cynical ex-communist with a troubled past,...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 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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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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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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Alois Nebel
Inspired by classic film noir and rendered in mesmerizing black-and-white rotoscope animation (à la Richard Linklater's WAKING LIFE), this dark-hearted Czech drama traces the haunted memories and mysterious visions of a troubled train dispatcher through the shifting cultural and political...Watch Movie
