Gustáv Valach

Slingboy

A young Czech boy is freed from a concentration camp and now is working for the army against the Germans.

Homeland

The first Slovakian colour film. A celebration of traditional Slovakian folklore and creativity expressed through a story of young love .

On the Poachers Trail

Second part of the trilogy. Vasek is expected to go to Bulgaria for a holiday with his parents during the summer vacation, but the boy finds the prospect of spending the summer with his gamekeeper grandfather far more tempting than the seaside. On the last day of school Vasek picks up his final report, but after that he takes his already packed bag and sets off for the Bohemian Forest without telling his parents. The grandfather is happy to have his grandson at his side again. In the evening, he gets a phone call from Vasek's mother. The trip to Bulgaria has been postponed and Vasek can stay with his grandfather for the time being.

Putovanie kukučky Kukulienky

Ivan Renč's poetically themed animated story, narrated by Gustáv Valach, tells the tale of a little cuckoo named Adelka searching for her mother, who is trying to hatch an egg in a foreign nest. The forest realm of animals and birds has its own strict laws. Among the most basic is the upbringing and care of young animals. Only the cuckoo breaks this old practice. She calmly lays her egg in a foreign nest and no longer cares about it.

Under the Badgers Rock

The gamekeeper Straka lives by himself in the Bohemian forest hill. He has quarreled with his only son. He cannot come to terms with the fact that his son has abandoned his beloved forests and settled in a town. He has never even met his grandson Vasek. Following an illness, however, little Vasek needs some country air, and so one day his mother Jarmila delivers him to her father-in-law's cottage. At first Straka is angry, but Vasek is an unaffected lad and throws himself with verve into all the little adventures that the forest provides.

Dragon's Return

This is a ballad about love, hate, and a search for a way out of loneliness. It is a dramatic story about the strange potter, Martin Leaps, nicknamed Dragon, who is suspected by the villagers as the cause of natural disasters. He lost his wife, his home, and his freedom due to false accusations. After years he returns to his native village. Putting his own life to risk, he saves a herd of cows from a forest fire in the hills. But not even this heroic deed helps him to win back the friendship of the locals.

The Nun's Night

A dark fable set in an early 1950s Czech village, a time of Soviet-style socialism which saw the implementation of collectivized agriculture and the mass closure of monasteries and convents.

Adrift

A fisherman saves Anada, a woman adrift, from drowning. He takes her to his home, and protects her. Eventually, she occupies a larger place than was to be expected. He commits adultery with her, but his own wife seems to be in love with the strange young woman.

Nevěra

Based on book by Svatopluk Turek.

Lost Children

In the middle of the eighteenth century, at the time of the Prusso-Austrian War, a cuirassier, a hussar and an infantryman meet by chance and hide together in a secluded place. The war has left different marks on each of them, but they all long for normal human happiness. Although they initially have different attitudes towards military service, they are changed by their stay in seclusion and the atmosphere of life in a peasant cottage and refuse to return to the Austrian army. But all three Theresian "misfits" take up arms again, which they no longer want to touch, when the solitude is overrun by the Prussians. They manage to cover the escape of the family and their child, but pay with their lives.

Shadows of a Hot Summer

Ondrej lives on a farm outside a small town with his family. One day a group of men arrive at the family's house and the harmonious life they've led so far changes drastically for the worse.

Penelopa

An emancipated restorer restores rare castle frescoes in an ancient village with figures of ancient heroines - and one of them, Penelope, resembles an old woman who has been waiting for the return of her husband and son for forty years, who have supposedly gone to work in America.

Long Live the Republic

Oldrich is the runt of his village, beaten by his father, bullied by the other boys. But he has imagination on his side, and a wiry toughness they can’t defeat. The village is in turmoil, because the Nazi occupiers have just retreated and the Red Army is advancing. Oldrich dodges amid the mayhem and panic, taking his share of blows but always managing to stay one step ahead.

Dolina

A dramatic story of the emotional, moral and political maturation of two young people during the Slovak National Uprising.

Pavlínka

Albrechtice near Jablonec. Sixteen-year-old Pavlínka Linková lives with her grandmother Barbara, a local midwife who raised her after the death of the girl's parents. The charming girl experiences her first amorous outburst towards Pavel Žák, a young textile worker in nearby Svárovo. Her grandmother, however, prevents her from contacting Pavel in every possible way. Firstly, as a midwife, she knows well what can happen, and secondly, she remembers her old adventures well. Love, however, cannot be ordered around, especially not by a worried grandmother. But there are other obstacles. The textile workers of Svárovo are planning a strike and a demonstration against redundancies and wage cuts, and the factory director is preparing a vigorous response. The year is 1870 and the unsuspecting Pavlina finds herself in the middle of events that will go down in history...

Behind the Sloe-Bush

Third part of the trilogy. Vaska again is visiting his grandfather living in Bohemian Forest and understands the importance of guarding nature.

Posledný návrat

Peter and Lena had a daughter, Zuzka, soon after their wedding. Lena graduated from drama school and wanted to act, but there were no vacancies in the theater in the city where they lived, and she was forced to join a traveling troupe. Lena was away from home for months. Peter and Zuzka missed her very much. One day, Peter met Eva and fell in love with her. When Lena learned about this, she returned to the city, never to be separated from her family again.

První parta

The unfortunate 1930s also befell the student Standa Půlpán. For existential reasons, he had to abandon his studies and entered the mines. However, he only slowly and with difficulty became close to the older miners, rough men who were closed in on themselves. Only his brave stand in rescuing people who were trapped in a mining accident will win him the solidarity of the entire mining collective. Even Karel Čapek's draft once lent itself to promoting an exacerbated class interpretation of social relations.

Maple and Juliana

A girl is transformed into a maple tree by her impulsive and angry mother. Three poor wandering musicians come by the tree and create instruments from it. Walking around the country instead of happiness they bring death everywhere with their cursed instruments. However they cannot get rid of them, unless they bury the wooden instruments at the place of the tree. The three are anything but harmonious, each taking in their disputes various stances.

Dynamit

The drama of a man driven to crime by the mechanism of violence in an American prison. It is an indictment of American justice and the barbarically cruel methods of prison staff. Based on Jack London's novel "The Star Rover".

Horúčka

A psychological story of a young printing house leader and his subordinates and a "dangerous contract from the West".

Priehrada

The construction of a large dam in Slovakia is hindered by the influence of small farmers on the landowner Bujna, on whom they depend for help with the harvest and for monetary loans.

Lazy sa pohly

The life on the poor Slovak hills, the lazy hills, where agriculture is at a primitive stage and where the shelves give a small harvest. Meanwhile, socialist industrialization is reaching an amazing boom in the valleys. Therefore, it is necessary to solve the problem of small farmers on poor farms and the lack of labor in ever-growing industrial enterprises. The film, based on the fate of Matěj Rendek, who returns to Slovakia after 18 years from America, and on the fate of his family, who have toiled for years on poor fields and slaved for a rich farmer, shows how this problem must be solved: an agricultural cooperative is established on the lazy hills, which, with the help of machines, can handle agricultural work better and with a significantly smaller number of laborers, and most of the lazy villagers leave to work at a large sawmill.

Kačička Modropierko

A poetically themed animated story by Ruda Mórica, with commentary by Gustáv Valach, about a duck named Modropierko who, despite many obstacles and several attempts at nesting, manages to hatch her long-awaited baby ducklings