Papilio

Papilio

1987 · ★ 4.3 · Drama

František Cepl is a young man from a simple family. He graduated from a real school and was going to study technology. When the occupation came, he had to work as a factory assistant. There he meets an older man named Telec, whom everyone knows as Hrabě. He impresses František with his ostentatious disdain for work and his shameless flirtation with women. František, whom the Count calls Papilio (butterfly butterfly), is filled with youthful ideals, while the Count, on the other hand, is an extract of the crudest individualism. He has worked his way up from a student at a business academy and a theatre actor to a member of a pre-war gallery. He blackmails, steals, drinks, abuses women and, in a way, Papilio himself.

Directed by Jiří Svoboda · Written by Miroslav Vaic

Your Rating

Cast

Make it a double feature

Papilio

Scalpel, Please

Both from Jiří Svoboda.

More from Jiří SvobodaSee all →

Schůzka se stíny

Schůzka se stíny · 1983

Schůzka se stíny

Two people scarred by a wartime past meet again years later during an archaeological dig. But the silent, inaccessible man in particular is reluctant to admit to anyone his harrowing experiences in a Nazi concentration camp, where he was the subject of horrific medical experiments.

Jan Hus

Jan Hus · 2015

Prague at the end of the 14th century: King Wenceslas, his brother Sigismund, the Archbishop of Prague Zbynek and three popes are locked in a power struggle. All lay claim to influence over the Holy See. Jan Hus, a master of Charles University and preacher, feels partly responsible for the fate of the divided church and its faithful, for whom it serves as a role model. He thus attracts the resentment of the powerful. "Jan Hus" is the story of a man who, because of his convictions, faced death in the battle between the opinions and ambitions of ecclesiastical and secular authorities.

Girl with Shells

Girl with Shells · 1981

Girl with Shells

MovieDramaFamily

Thirteen-year-old Vendula dozes off at school and dreams about her parents riding in a carriage dressed in their wedding clothes. The young teacher is angry with the girl who has already failed a year, and has no idea that she is looking after three younger half-brothers. They all have a different father and their mother comes home noisy and drunk every day, often accompanied by a man...

Jen o rodinných záležitostech

Jen o rodinných záležitostech · 1991

Jen o rodinných záležitostech

Life in communist Czechoslovakia in the early 1950s and the punishments for going against the state.

Scalpel, Please

Scalpel, Please · 1986

Scalpel, Please

An aging professor at a Prague neurological clinic is forced to confront his personal values and the harsh boundaries of medical science. Already burdened by the ultimate questions of life and death, his ethical convictions are put to the test by Víťa, a young patient with an inoperable tumor.

Oddechový čas

Oddechový čas · 1978

Oddechový čas

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...

The Great Movie Robbery

The Great Movie Robbery · 1987

The Great Movie Robbery

MovieScience FictionComedy

The film is essentially a feature-length commercial for an exhibition to mark the 40th anniversary of the nationalisation of the Czechoslovak film industry, to be held at the Prague U Hybernu venue. The protagonists of the piece are comedians Oldrich Kaiser and Jirí Lábus, who are set to accept an award from Japanese television representatives at the exhibition. At the same time, five gangsters plot to seize a revolutionary invention devised by professor Suzuki - a super holograph, which enables any figure from television to be transported in the flesh into the real world, and vice-versa.

Into the Darkness

Into the Darkness · 2023

Into the Darkness

MovieThrillerCrime

What led a former top scientist to rob a bank and hold a dozen hostages? Czech Television's crime thriller based on Martin Goffa's novel "The Little Girl" is squeezed into two environments - the interior of a robbed bank with hostages and the interior of a crisis management car, from where the police communicate with the mysterious attacker and try, like him, to play for time and find out more about him. The flashbacks also tell the story of the attacker's daughter Karin from the recent past, gradually revealing a connection with what is happening in the current storyline.

The Damned House of Hajn

The Damned House of Hajn · 1989

The Damned House of Hajn

MovieDramaThriller

Sonya is the heiress to the riches of a Czech noble family—the Hajns. Petr, a social climber marries her, ignoring some shady goings-on—in particular, an insane uncle who prowls the mansion believing himself invisible, a peccadillo the family indulges. The uncle’s stalking every corner of the house, popping out of cupboards and out from behind curtains slowly takes its toll on the young bride.

Udělení milosti se zamítá

Udělení milosti se zamítá · 2002

Udělení milosti se zamítá

MovieDramaTV Movie

A story inspired by real events from the 1950s to the 1970s. Honza Steiner was neither a tough guy nor a thug. He was just a boy who had the misfortune of finding himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. He ended up on the wrong path due to a series of unfortunate coincidences. Honza was raised in children's homes, juvenile detention centers, and eventually prison. He waged a long, undeclared war with a public security officer, one that was not exactly abounding in rules. The conflict culminated in a staged hunt for Honza, who unfortunately shot his arch-enemy and was sentenced to death for it.

Fallen Empire

Fallen Empire · 2018

A chronicle of the fall of the Austro-Hungarian empire and the rise of the Balkan states.

The Velvet Murders

The Velvet Murders · 2005

The Velvet Murders

MovieCrimeDrama

A thriller loosely based on one of the most violent Czech criminal cases of the nineties, popularly known as the Orlík murders. The film delves into the motivation behind the killings, exposing their exceptional cruelty and an absolute absence of moral values. The perpetrators executed four people on their way to achieving material gain. Two of the bodies were found at the bottom of Orlík reservoir, the third perished in a bomb blast, and the forth was shot at home...

End of the Lonely Farm Berhof

End of the Lonely Farm Berhof · 1985

End of the Lonely Farm Berhof

Drama set on an isolated farm on the Czech-Polish border immediately after the end of WWII.

Chain

MovieThrillerCrime

Carefree young nurse Marta learns upon her husband's death that he was involved in all manner of criminal activity, which puts her life in danger.

Zrcadlo pro Kristýnu

Zrcadlo pro Kristýnu · 1976

Zrcadlo pro Kristýnu

The 19-year-old volleyball player has been bedridden for a long time due to a spinal injury. The self-confident and energetic girl has time to recap her life and short sporting career so far...

The Motive for Murder

The Motive for Murder · 1975

The Motive for Murder

A short story film depicting the three different faces of crime. In the short story "The Weekend", Karas kills a woman he raped some time ago in order to silence her. However, he accidentally kills another woman. In "Hostages", a drug addict, Chaban, terrorizes the hospital's operating team, but the disciplined doctors handle the difficult situation. In "The Pickpocket", the thief Benda wants to return to his trade immediately after his release, but his attempt ends tragically.

More Like This

The English Patient

The English Patient · 1996

The English Patient

MovieDramaRomance

In the 1930s, Count Almásy is a Hungarian map maker employed by the Royal Geographical Society to chart the vast expanses of the Sahara Desert along with several other prominent explorers. As World War II unfolds, Almásy enters into a world of love, betrayal, and politics.

The Pianist

The Pianist · 2002

The true story of pianist Władysław Szpilman's experiences in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation. When the Jews of the city find themselves forced into a ghetto, Szpilman finds work playing in a café; and when his family is deported in 1942, he stays behind, works for a while as a laborer, and eventually goes into hiding in the ruins of the war-torn city.

Schindler's List

Schindler's List · 1993

Schindler's List

MovieDramaHistory

The true story of how businessman Oskar Schindler saved over a thousand Jewish lives from the Nazis while they worked as slaves in his factory during World War II.

Sophie Scholl: The Final Days

Sophie Scholl: The Final Days · 2005

Sophie Scholl: The Final Days

MovieDramaHistory

In 1943, as Hitler continues to wage war across Europe, a group of college students mount an underground resistance movement in Munich. Dedicated expressly to the downfall of the monolithic Third Reich war machine, they call themselves the White Rose. One of its few female members, Sophie Scholl is captured during a dangerous mission to distribute pamphlets on campus with her brother Hans. Unwavering in her convictions and loyalty to the White Rose, her cross-examination by the Gestapo quickly escalates into a searing test of wills as Scholl delivers a passionate call to freedom and personal responsibility.

Aimée & Jaguar

Aimée & Jaguar · 1999

Aimée & Jaguar

MovieDramaHistory

In 1943, while the Allies are bombing Berlin and the Gestapo is purging the capital of Jews, a dangerous love affair blossoms between two women – one a Jewish member of the underground, the other an exemplar of Nazi motherhood.

Letters from Iwo Jima

Letters from Iwo Jima · 2006

Letters from Iwo Jima

MovieActionDrama

The story of the battle of Iwo Jima between the United States and Imperial Japan during World War II, as told from the perspective of the Japanese who fought it.

Mirror

MovieDramaHistory

A dying man in his forties recalls his childhood, his mother, the war and personal moments that tell of and juxtapose pivotal moments in Soviet history with daily life.

Days of Glory

Days of Glory · 2006

MovieDramaHistory

1943. They have never stepped foot on French soil but because France was at war, Said, Abdelkader, Messaoud and Yassir enlist in the French Army, along with 130,000 other “indigenous” soldiers, to liberate the “fatherland” from the Nazi enemy. Heroes that history has forgotten...

Leningrad

Leningrad · 2009

When in 1941 Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union, their troops quickly besieged Leningrad. Foreign journalists are evacuated but one of them, Kate Davies, is presumed dead and misses the plane. Alone in the city she is helped by Nina Tsvetnova a young and idealist police officer and together they will fight for their own survival and the survival of the people in the besieged Leningrad.

Defiance

Defiance · 2008

MovieDramaHistory

Based on a true story, during World War II, four Jewish brothers escape their Nazi-occupied homeland of West Belarus in Poland and join the Soviet partisans to combat the Nazis. The brothers begin the rescue of roughly 1,200 Jews still trapped in the ghettos of Poland.

When Trumpets Fade

When Trumpets Fade · 1998

When Trumpets Fade

In WWII Western Germany, Private David Manning reluctantly leaves behind a mortally wounded fellow soldier and searches for survivors from his platoon, only to learn from commanding officer Captain Pritchett that they have all been killed in action. Despite requesting a discharge on the grounds of mental disability, Manning is promoted to sergeant and assigned to lead a new platoon of young inductees.

Rate this film

Your ratings make Midnight smarter