Jiří Růžička

Two classically trained musicians and childhood friends - one a successful cellist in Prague, the other a violinist who makes his money playing provincial funerals - reconvene on the eve of a small-town symphony concert.

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.

After a soldier cuts off the arm of king's cousin, king decides to deactivate the army. Of course, generals don't like it at all and they try to kill the king. The assassin should be artificial body in the shape of actress Evelina Keleti and with brain of psychotic serial killer Fany Stubová. They also manage to kill king's astrologer Stuart Hampl, who warns the king. Accidentally, Hampl's brain is implanted into assassin's body, actress Keleti is killed and chaos begins.

A British citizen by the name of George Reiner (Jirí Sovák) arrives at Prague airport. He was once a Czech safe-breaker, and has now returned home after thirty years to steal twenty-dollar gold coins still kept in the safe at a private villa in Pilsen whose owner fled to the West.

Dorota, a bad woman married the miller, out of sheer greed drives him to death. She then took the mill away from his son Peter and threw him out of the home. Lucifer, who is known to rule in hell, sends out the devil Janek. He is supposed to fetch Dorota because the measure of her earthly sins is overflowing. But the devil himself can not handle this evil woman and flees to the military. There he meets Peter. By joining forces, they finally succeed in transporting the wicked Dorota to hell. Since then hell is hell. But for Peter, who is suddenly in possession of a magic mantle, begins a nice time, because strangely, the prince shows great interest in him.

This lavish Soviet/Czech co-production is based on Fyodor Dostoyevsky's famous novel, The Gambler, which tells the story of a Russian living in Germany, in a gambling resort. This film is set at the turn of the century, and was filmed in Karlovy Vary (Carlsbad), Czechoslovakia. Played by Nikolai Burlyayev, the gambler succumbs completely to his addiction, using up every resource he has (human, spiritual and financial) in his wagering, finally becoming a rootless drifter.

An upholsterer who is preparing a rocket for takeoff accidentally jettisons himself into space and returns to Earth 500 years later with an alien companion who wishes to learn more about the human race.

Sixty-year-old Joska Platejz, a peculiar jack of all trades, lives in a cottage in the Giant Mountains. He cooks wonderfully for a group of woodcutters. He has brought a mountain stream to his cottage and set up a set of tanks (one of which he keeps trout in). He also has a wind turbine, a wood-burning cable car, air-conditioning in the cottage and a mannequin of a man called Albert, who scares away unknown visitors. Joska is a man who claims that it is best to be alone, yet he constantly tries not to be alone. He is friends with a gamekeeper, a teacher, he tries to get his children to visit him regularly and therefore easily succumbs to a middle-aged lady. She doesn't take long to persuade him and soon comes to his cottage. A great love seems to be born...

A modern fairy tale that takes place in the present.

The drama of a man for whom work has become the only meaning of life. His cold and impersonal manner arouses the disapproval of his colleagues and family members and leads to alienation. Eventually, he realizes the need for "time out" to reflect on his own life...

Marek (Jirí Holý), formerly a driver of a long-distance lorry, has served his term for smuggling art works abroad and is released from jail. Years ago, he sacrificed himself and confessed his guilt on behalf of his companions - the drivers Krása, Jelínek, Hess and Novák from the Ministry of Culture who gave them tips. Marek finds Hess and tells him that now he expects the gang to compensate him for the wasted years of his life.

The exemplary accountant Antonín Safránek lives his orderly life as a citizen of a small town. His wife Eliska brings up their three children and desperately tries to get by on her husband's low salary every month. At the same time, she sadly watches the luxurious life of their neighbor and other people like him who have no qualms about improving their standard of living by cheating. One day, the infallible Safránek makes a mistake in the cash clearance and there are nine one-hundred Crown bills left in the safe. An unexpected company control carried out the next day passes without problems and the account is closed. The temptation is too strong. The insufficient control enables Safránek to gradually steal one million Crowns.

A quarrel between divorced waitress Mája and her fifteen-year-old son Petr ends with the boy physically attacking his mother, and he is sent to an institution for juvenile delinquents.

A psychological story about dissatisfied individuals who despise the stereotypes of others, but create their own. Kazan, a vagabond through life, and Viola, who always settles for the ideal, form a disparate pair who eventually find the one.

When Clown Ferdinand enters an abandoned city in his wagon he ends up on a space rocket where he meets a robot that can turn invisible. This film reuses sets from Polák's Ikarie XB 1 (1963).

Set in a 1950s Moravian wine village, an elderly Josef, guided by his quirky life philosophy and humor, recalls key moments from his past. Across nine seasonal vignettes filled with local folklore and customs, he and his fellow elders remain fully engaged in the joys and trials of village life.

Antonín Kachlík wanted to make committed films about the moral dilemmas of the working class, but in the era of normalisation, he could only proclaim how faltering individuals would eventually come to the desired thinking. This is also true of the adaptation of Jiří Švejda's book about the wavering career of a young brickmaking technologist - the simplistic drawing of characters and plots, the posterishly lifeless language and the textbook discussion of social ills are all objectionable; the ideal becomes the code of the socialist builder.

Maniac, a driver, sits on the track women, which then rape and kill. For loved ones, he is an ordinary person who has a wife and child. When exposed, he does not stop before killing his wife and takes his son hostage, under the guise of which he is trying to escape abroad.

The reason for making this film is clear: it was to cover up Vojtěch Jasný's famous chronicle "All the Good Natives", an account of the tragic consequences of forced collectivisation. The pro-regime director Antonín Kachlík also focuses on the socialisation of the Moravian village, accompanied by mistakes and coercion, but in his optimistic view he emphasises the hopeful prospects leading to a happy future. Although the united village lands were born in pain, they will serve for the benefit of all the working people... As with Jasný, Radek Brzobohatý embodies the stubborn peasant, who is only slowly acknowledging the benefits of communal farming. However, unlike the poetic exuberance and pithiness of Jasný's chronicle, here we encounter a vicious posturing.

Five Girls Around the Neck, in 1967, set out to explore that critical age of adolescence when a person's character is formed for good or evil. Schorm examined a girl's problems of being giving too much. She tries to buy the goodwill of her less fortunate friends; her intentions are pure, but in the difficulty of communicating she learns envy and deceit, and must decide if she will submit to double dealing or steel her life against self-deception and mediocrity. In addition to the relationship between the girl and her friends, Schorm introduces a teenage romance and the broader relationship between the girl's parents - neatly tied together with segments of Weber's opera "Der Freischütz". He reveals himself as a skilled psychological director with a wide range of knowledge about people.

In the era of normalisation, a number of (pseudo)historical films were made, even described as reconstructions, which glorified the world-building mission of the Communist Party and attributed to it exclusively humanitarian intentions ("Days of Betrayal", "Sokolovo", "Liberation of Prague", "The Victorious People"). In 1929, when its fifth congress met, Klement Gottwald, who had taken the line of the Russian Bolsheviks, took over the leadership of the Communists...

On one Sunday, when a scrap metal collection is announced, the children find a strange wire puzzle that grants every wish. Soon the town where the children live and go to school is in turmoil. But selfish adults, eager to investigate the mystery, destroy the spell...

Twelve-year old Kosta, a little boy of an overactive imagination, makes friends with equally sensitive eleven-year old Blanka. Fantasy leads the two children to the forgotten attic in the house of Blanka's parents. For them, this is the forbidden "thirteenth chamber," and to Kosta, an old glass vase becomes a magic ball with the help of which he can play his favorite play "on fate". The children observe the adults and unconsciously sense that something has gone wrong in Blanka's family. Her dad is a physician and her mother is not happy with him, still recollecting her former wooer Petr who left for India upon his graduation.

Teenage Peter doesn't get along with his strict father. And when his father sells his beloved bitch Irina, he feels lonely. Therefore, he easily falls under the influence of an older young man, Panter, who gets his money by fraud and theft. He also involves Peter and little Fenek in his nasty tricks.

Thirty Cases of Major Zeman is a Czechoslovak action-drama television show intended as a political propaganda to support the official attitude of the communist party. The series were filmed in the 1970s. Each episode encompasses one year, and investigations are stylized to that year. Most are inspired by real cases. The series follows the life of police investigator Jan Zeman during his career from 1945 to 1975.