Ivan Helcl

The trenches of World War I provide for a captivating backdrop to the drama of Corporal Hoferik. In his devotion to the Habsburg Monarchy, he fanatically carries out his military orders, but he ultimately suffers the Empire's disfavor.

Miroslav Hornicek is a deluded young man who is convinced he is Faust incarnate. This turn of mind leads to some ludicrous situations, such as when he believes a woman is really a cat. Before he can be rounded up and interned wherever they keep people with this type of a problem, love enters his life and the clouds that obscured his vision begin to dissipate.

In this fantasy with dragons and flying machines, 10-year-old Marta is determined to find her brother who was kidnapped at Christmastime by a fake Saint Nick because the little boy is blessed with the ability to locate gold. A kindly, wise philosopher-type by the name of Orlando joins Marta in her search, and together they survive a gigantic sleeping dragon and imprisonment in a tower with no clear means of escape. They overcome that hurdle, but later on, Orlando succumbs to the evils of The Plague (an all-consuming woman!) and Marta continues on her search alone. Eventually, she does find her brother -- but that only introduces problems she had never considered.

The mischievous princess Anka annoys her father and her surroundings with her original tricks. So as punishment, the devil Haramáš takes her to the robbers and she makes their pleasant life of robbery literally hell on earth. How the devils would like to return her to her royal parents now! But Anka decides that she must be properly freed from captivity. She gets a dragon and a prince and organizes a big liberation performance...

The movie is a satirical look at foreign occupation - a medieval Czech jester entertains a German king and his French wife, or a modern Czech villager helps a Bavarian hunter and his French wife find wild boar in Bohemia - the story switches back and forth between the two plots and time-periods.

Films for children gradually fell into the grip of expressive and content sterility, succumbing to exhortative, educational tendencies. This is also the case in the story of a 14-year-old girl who has been accepted to the conservatory, but a sudden accident, a broken arm, makes her rethink her priorities - she learns that it is possible to engage in other activities than the tedious practice of piano etudes.

A funny adventures of a group of children who plan to leave their village in go for the sea trip.

Little boy considers to have discovered traces of the aliens but in fact comes across the activity of small thieves.