The Crossword Puzzle

Director Tomáš Vorel created his experimental feature debut with members of renowned Prague non-traditional auteur theaters. The ensembles presented their own poetics and style through five "short stories" connected by satirical commentary by the "expert" Dr. Milan Šteindler, CSc.

It is a film consisting of six short stories, which mostly tell in a black humorous, ironic, often bitterly bitter form about an ancient curse, human infidelity, strange deviations, an unexpected miracle and hypocritical forgiveness. They have their own pointed structure, specific atmosphere and way of processing, and yet they pass on motives to each other that communicate with each other and observe the same things from different angles.

When Herra, a young Czech woman, falls in love with Nazir, an Afghan, she has no idea what kind of life awaits her in post-Taliban Afghanistan, nor of the family she is about to integrate into. A liberal grandfather, an adopted child who is highly intelligent and Freshta, who would do anything to escape her husband's violent grip.

In the 1980s, Anna, a Czech sprinter, starts training for the Olympics. After she collapses during training, she learns she is being given steroids and decides to stop using them until her mother helps the coaches give them to her.

The denizens of a café communicate without words, as their sentiments are expressed as animated shapes and objects. Meanwhile, a mischievous dog sneaks around and steals people's drinks.

As every morning, men get on the tram to go to work. But on that day, to the rhythm of the tickets inserted in the ticket-stamping machine, the vehicle gets erotic and the conductress’ desire turns the reality into a surrealistic and phallic fantasy.

The film tells the story of Eva, a pianist who followed her husband, musician and composer Peter, to a small village on the Slovak-Hungarian border. While Peter enjoys the peace and quiet of composing in the local environment, Eva searches in vain for a career as a performer, feeling disconnected not only from her family but also from her familiar Prague surroundings and friends. Unfaithful Plays is an intimate love drama about love, infidelity, human failures and finding oneself.

This is one of the classic animations of the 1990s with its surreal tale of the struggle between the sexes. All the strains as well as the closeness of relationships are shown, the title referring to the repetition of the tensions throughout our lives. It also reveals the role the woman plays in a marriage and the need, though often not communicated properly, of the man for this companionship and support.

A four-story omnibus depicting different Czech slices-of-life from the titular city.

A husband asks his best friend to seduce his wife in order to get divorce.

Ofka has fallen into a strange lethargy: while most of her high school classmates continue their studies, she refuses to leave the deceptive comfort of childhood, which is quickly turning into a stifling trap. She works in her brother-in-law Eda's 24-hour shop and lets the fragments of wasted lives of regular and random customers, as well as those of her old friends who, like her, only really live at night, flit around her. Sometimes she drops in on a group drinking in the Vltava harbor, wanders the streets with the eccentric Ubre, who is fascinated by fishing discarded items out of trash cans and hopelessly in love with her, and avoids Míra, who, on the contrary, has stopped loving her. However, it is becoming increasingly clear to her that one day she will have to say goodbye to her childhood, cross the borders of her native neighborhood, and start doing something with her life...

Disagreement can lead to arguments, especially if you don't know how to argue intelligently or if you're unable to compromise. And if the discussion seems to drag on stubbornly without reaching a solution, you can disguise your opinion, giving it a different, more… inviting form.

A short self-portrait introduces Pavlatova's interest in combining animation and documentary live-action work.