Martin Vandas

Tom (4 years old), Suzanne (8) and Derek (10) spend the weekend with their grandparents. But nothing is as usual: Grandpa seems to be elsewhere; Tom wonders where Grandma has gone, she who always tells him incredible stories; Derek is hard at work renovating the old apple tree hut. So following in the footsteps of her ancestor, Suzanne improvises herself as a storyteller to illuminate the house with imaginary and wonderful stories and try to fill the absence of Grandmother. The movie is an adaptation of three tales written by Arnost Goldflam.

For Hugo, visiting Chernobyl’s forbidden area is not a commemorative trip. If this young tourist wanders through radioactive ruins, it is mainly to feed his Instagram account. This absurd quest will lead him to discover a population he never knew existed.

Far, far away, endless fields overgrown with weeds stretch to infinity. A beautiful garden is hidden in the middle of them, and it is carefully looked after by the Gardener. Her endurance is put to the test when a severe storm breaks out and her garden is flooded with seeds of weeds. This innocent encounter slowly grows into a life-and-death struggle. The Gardener tries her best to defeat this elemental force, but her fear and her desire to resist the intruders at all costs puts her entire world at risk.

In a desolate landscape process strange creatures. The foreman of the group picks a suitable spot and the whole multiplying colony starts excavating a pit. They encounter various natural disasters that ruin their efforts – but the colonists always rise from the ruins and continue their work. We do unequivocally sympathise… till the moment when we return to the people’s daily lives.

September 1989 in the GDR. With the change of the general mood in the country, the life of 12-year-old FRITZI changes as well. Her best friend Sophie has fled with her mother through Hungary to West Germany and the only thing Fritzi has left is Sophie's little dog Sputnik. But Fritzi misses Sophie just as much as her little four-legged friend does. Therefore, she decides to bring Sputnik to Sophie. But there is only one way to get there: over the strictly guarded border. A very dangerous adventure for a 12-year-old girl and a small dog...

Sea, sun, beaches and family holidays. But what if the hotel isn't as stellar as promised, your room has a bit of a naughty view, the dinner is surprisingly exotic and your luggage travels elsewhere?

The film tells the story of a very important social problem: civic engagement. It is not tied to any particular political system or period. There is a stylized, anonymous, universal character living in an unspecified space. Everything is made of paper using the origami technique. The character does not want to solve the problems of the world around him, he thinks that he would lose his peace. But as a result, with this hidden from the news of the world, he gradually begins to sacrifice not only his property, his space, but also his freedom.

Will the father-son relationship make the trip into the wild more enjoyable? Are the children really cruel or just playing innocent games? What will the teacher do when everything is already synchronized? Three stories set on a mysterious island. The animated film by Marta Prokopová and Michal Blaško sheds memories of childhood and adolescence into narcotic images and suggestive sounds.

Lucie Sunková’s short film The Tree is a metaphorical story about the parallels in lives of people and trees, a lyrical poem about birth and death, about the flow of our time and the nature surrounding us, a parable about parenthood and crossing the boundaries of a human (not only) life. It is a story about relations, seeming hopelessness and a happy promise. Used paint-on-glass technique, a pure poetic means of expression ideal for a story like this, forms another metaphoric layer of the film withs its laboriousness and graphic style. The budget of this co-production reached almost 150 thousand EUR and was almost evenly divided between MAUR film and French production company Les Films de l’Arlequin. Both sides were supported by their respective national funds – State Cinematography Fund in the Czech Republic and the prestigious national fund CNC – Centre National du Cinema in France.

An affectionate film that tells the story of Eva Marty, and her dog, Kubko, who rediscover each other thanks to unexpected catastrophe. They get the opportunity to share an incredible, literally cosmic experience together

Ivan Wernisch wrote about his poems: “My poems are what they are, and I would not improve them with any commentary.” One of the most important living poets, Ivan Wernisch, with his nostalgic, railway and blowing poem, inspired director David Súkup to its distinctive animated interpretation. Alongside a visual tribute to the author in the form of a railway employee and the phenomenon of coffee in Czech poetry, a distinctive animated film was made, which shows the intimate closeness of animation and poetry and tries to bring new readers to poetry in an attractive form.

Mimi sees the world with her hands and ears. She is blind. Together with her best friend Líza, they have visited many fantastic worlds of fun and mystery. Christmas is finally coming. Mimi, Líza and their neighbours decorate a beautiful magnificent tree. However, the bulbs won’t light up. Where did the magic Christmas light disappear? The answer is hidden in the times when their neighbours were still small children. Mimi and Líza set out on an adventurous journey to bring the charming Christmas light back.

The last conscious moments of Stalin, the solitary tyrant who believes himself immortal. An evocation of the mental chaos of the Little Father of the People who was suffering from delusions of persecution and untold power during the three days of his death throes. And, in fact, is he really dead? In the limbo of the Soviet past, the ghosts from the gulag dream of settling some old scores.

In a small town plunged into darkness, two children, Kyona and Adriel, are separated from their parents and, facing the path of exile alone, embark on a heroic journey that will take them from childhood to adolescence, in search of refuge, peace and the hope of finding their family.

The film based on the poem by Aimé Césair was created for a series of one-minute-long films inspired by the poems of this French poet commemorating the 100th anniversary of his birth. The French original was narrated by Jacques Martial with music composed by François Causse and produced by MAUR film for the company La Maison Garage. The Czech version was translated by the French poet and translator Bertrand Schmitt and narrated for the cinema by actor Viktor Preiss. The film was animated with the demanding technique of oil painted on glass directly in front of the camera and the production in the Anima studio took almost three months during this spring. The same technique will be used for an animated co-production film directed by the French director Florence Miailhe with Lucie Sunková as the main animator.

Jan Balej's animated film One Night in One City (2007) from the Czech Republic. Very little dialogue throughout, but instead a rich world of sounds and music which more than match the detailed animation and curious vignettes that create the film.

A symbolic story of life after death where the main character, The One, must start his journey in the Purgatory. With the help of a guide, The One overcomes many obstacles that stand in his way – the forest, the birds, the snow and even the road itself put up resistance against his journey of self-discovery and could trap him in Purgatory for all eternity.

A young girl buries in her soul a memory of a painful moment, when as a child she brought home an injured bird and her father burdened by his own weight of worries didn’t notice her feelings and longing for understanding. The girl took her father’s reaction as indifference and closed herself in her inner world longing for her father’s love and its manifestations. Since that moment she and her dad continued to grow apart, and as an adult she is no longer able to accept his endearments. The father suffers from guilt and searches for a way back to his daughter, trying to revive their lost relationship.

The film contains three Jan Werich's fairy tales, each directed by one artist. The first story sets out to the Sumava mountains in Southern Bohemia to find out whether Ogres ever lived there. The middle tale The Hat and the Little Jay Feather concerns a king who sends his three sons to bring back a hat he left at a tavern when he was young. The third and longest fairy tale Reason and Luck is about the two virtues of the title try to prove their importance by changing the life of a pig herder named Louis. Written by

A man becomes lured into a fictional game his ex-girlfriend has initiated. Sexually ensnared by her, and now realizing the fragility of the border between the real and the imagined, he begins to unravel. He convinces himself that if he can only write an ending to his life story, he can regain control of his life. But playing with fiction is not an innocent game…

Blind Mimi and Lisa are best friends. They learn from each other to approach the world and its diversity with generosity, tolerance, and openness. In a new story, titled The Garden, a yellow container is installed in the yard of their house which their neighbours soon start filling with old and broken things. Lisa is curious what Mimi would be getting rid of and is surprised to see she doesn´t throw away anything. For Mimi, all old things at home are her anchors and little certainties in the dark. Lisa decides to throw away her old red ball. But it falls behind the container and thanks to it the girls discover a secret door leading to the beautiful Garden of the miraculous Magic Maker, who takes them on a quick trip through all the seasons.

The Forgotten Book is a story about loss and dealing with loneliness. One day Toni and Levi find a mysterious artifact - the forgotten book - which appears to have a unique value. It becomes Toni's gateway to the fantastic world of dreams and magic.

Days Off is a short film, an homage to the puppet and city. By combining puppet animation and live action it builds a certain strange kind of reality, a reality that is based in the real world. It is an audiovisual testimony using the language of surrealism, satire, parody, irony and gallows humor, a dark mirror reflecting today’s world.