Dobroslav Čech

Based on the only extensive prose work by the surrealist painter Josef Capek, Shades of Fern most resembles the philosophical fairy tales and fables of Josef’s older brother, the legendary Czech novelist and playwright Karel Capek. Two young poachers, more boys than men, kill a gamekeeper when they are caught illegally hunting. Panicked, they retreat into a forest that grows steadily more forbidding and deadly as their fear for the future—and guilt over their action—mounts. Loosely based on hundreds of oral folk tales and legends that haunt the woods of Czechoslovakia, Vlácil’s contemporary updating artistically underscores the relationship between man and nature, crime and punishment, isolation and society, and guilt and memory.

A striking generational tragicomedy, A Hoof Here, a Hoof There is a caustic group portrait of pals who enjoy a tipple, all kinds of hi-jinks and no-strings sexual adventures. Auditor Pepe, vet Dědek and restaurant manager František are financially secure and enjoy life with their similarly fun-loving girlfriends—at least until the moment when the brash Pepe collapses and ends up in hospital.

This feature film based on the events of 1938 is a chronicle of the futile efforts of the Czechoslovak president Edvard Benes (Jirí Pleskot), politicians and ordinary citizens, to save the independence and the territorial integrity of the state from the advance of Hitler's Germany. On the 29th of March 1938 the leader of the Sudeten Germans Henlein (Werner Ehrlicher) has a meeting with Hitler (Gunnar Möller). Hitler orders him to intensify pressure on the Czechoslovak government. On the 24th of April in Carlsbad, the Sudetendeutsche Partei (Sudeten German Party) decides upon eight demands that are unacceptable to the Czechoslovak President, since they would ultimately lead to the break-up of the Republic. Benes still shows a certain willingness to negotiate, and Henlein resents this. The Germans are determined to make further negotiations impossible through incidents and violence.

Petr Soukup, a student from Karlovy Vary, is tasked with getting support for student protests in the spa city. However, Petr’s attention is rather absorbed in his relationships with students Zuzana and Martina as well as by the plight of a friend – single mother Jiřina who is making ends meet through sex work.

In the 1950s, selected basic soldiers in a small border unit guard the western border with devotion, fighting intruders and uncovering their network of facilitators. It's a story of border guards that thankfully wasn't much of a political nudge, more of a tongue-in-cheek tale of young men at war and their joys and sorrows. And in between, they managed to catch a saboteur.

Elén, a girl living with her mother and stepfather in a secluded forest, has a great singing talent. On her twenty-first birthday, she runs away from home and on the train, millionaire René falls in love with her. Their paths soon diverge, only to be reunited soon after. Violinist Pavel Sedloň falls in love with Elén, and although Elén does not love him, she is determined to marry him. At that time, René dies, exhausted from working on the operetta Srdce v delirium. However, he is saved at the last moment and everything comes to a happy ending when Oldřich Nový explains how the authors actually meant it all.