Sandra Pogodová

Bathory is based on the legends surrounding the life and deeds of Countess Elizabeth Bathory known as the greatest murderess in the history of mankind. Contrary to popular belief, Elizabeth Bathory was a modern Renaissance woman who ultimately fell victim to men’s aspirations for power and wealth.

The film, which opens with students arriving at a police academy, is a crazy comedy that is more a series of zany episodes and jokes than a coherent story. They are linked by a simple plot in which the commander of the police academy, Major Maisner, searches among his recruits for an alleged FBI spy and, after a not-so-subtle practical joke, gets into a dispute with his subordinate, a dispute that ends in a genuine bank robbery.

NON PLUS ULTRAS is a comedy with a social subtext. It takes a satirical look at a short stretch in the life of five "fans" of one Prague football club who belong to the hardcore supporters - ultras or hooligans. The gang members' lives revolve around football. They revere their "world-famous" English counterparts and uncritically take them as their role models. The undeclared leader of the gang is Bejcak (played by David Novotny), a charismatic young man of around 30 years old with natural authority. He is not stupid; he likes to use foreign words, but always in a slightly unsuitable context. The oldest member of the gang is the lonely forty-year-old Tycka (Vladimir Dlouhy), whom Bejcak took under the gang's wing. Tycka is much older than the others. The stuttering youth Pejsek (Karel Zima) is a fanatic lover of all things "English". He is seconded by the none-too-bright Potapec (Michal Novotny) and the agile, wiry Vocko (Matej Hadek), who is constantly devising new loutish exploits.

Set over a two-decade period in a tiny Central European village, this drama not only chronicles a couple's tragic star-crossed love, it also serves as a metaphor for the tragedy of lost traditions. After opening in the snowy wilds as two people spectacularly die, the story jumps back 20 years as young Verona prepares to marry. Unfortunately, voracious wolves descend upon the ceremony and all but Verona and her courageous 10-year-old brother-in-law Goran, who saves her, perish. That day, Verona gives birth to Veronika and promptly betroths her daughter to the heroic Goran. A decade passes and on Veronika's 10th birthday, her engagement to Goran is formally announced at a big party. Festivities halt when a troupe of female circus performers and their sly employer Madina show up. Veronika soon finds herself more interested in Madina's young son Michal than she is in the adult Goran. Meanwhile, the worldly Madina attempts to adjust to life in an old-fashioned village.

The story of Doctor Čeněk Dobešek - a decent, kind man who seems almost out of place in today’s world. Though he’s a conscientious physician, he hasn’t learned to exploit his calling for personal gain the way many of his former classmates or hospital colleagues do. Happily settled in a modest two-room apartment with his lovely wife Zuzana and his dreadful mother-in-law Marie Košvancová, Čeněk cheerfully drops everything at any hour to answer the doorbell and tend to whoever needs him. His humble generosity scandalizes Marie, who’d much rather have a “real” Doctor as a son-in-law: someone famous, wealthy, and who never works for free, unlike Čeněk.

It all begins at Prague Airport, where American agents have brought Major Maisner, who has been expelled from the United States, in handcuffs. He returns to his place of work, the Central Police Academy, despite having been demoted to lieutenant for his "performance" and his position as academy commander having been taken over by the newly promoted Captain Hrubec. Maisner meets his former students, who now teach at the school. They all welcome him enthusiastically and receive gifts from him. While psychologist Kudláková, who is attracted to commanding types, has lost interest in the demoted Maisner and is now passionately in love with Hrubec, Boženka Vinklářová, who has broken up with the gypsy Štefan and now teaches dactyloscopy at the school, focuses her attention on him. Maisner recounts how he jumped off a skyscraper in America to defend himself against Simona Ptáčková's advances.

The main characters left their original professions of waiter and taxi driver and rented a thriving disco Brooklyn. However, their peaceful life is disrupted by the con man Kadlec, who has not forgotten that it was they who put him behind bars two years ago. All this time, all he's been thinking about is revenge. The formerly petty crook, with the help of his accomplices, his son-in-law Buresh and fellow prisoner "The Engineer", joins the drug trade and begins his revenge. Michal is arrested for the rape of a girl he has never seen in his life, and it doesn't take much for Tomas to figure out that Kadlec is behind it all. What Tomas also doesn't realise for a long time is that the sympathetic Ivana, who has joined their business and with whom he has fallen in love, also works as a luxury prostitute and was put into the business by Kadlec.

The eternal outsider Aleš Hrdlička always wanted to be an actor. However, his childhood dream did not come true, so he trained as a chef. Fate, however, wanted him to end up as an assistant in his friend's psychological counseling center. There he meets Richard Mayer, the owner of the Profumo del Mondo restaurant, who asks him for help in establishing a relationship with a beautiful sommelier with whom he has fallen head over heels in love. During his not-so-successful attempts to win Nikoletina's favor, Aleš falls for Richard's daughter Lucie. However, when he tries to get her phone number, he accidentally gets the contact information for a waitress named Stáza. While Aleš thinks he is texting Lucie during the night, it is actually Stáza who is responding to his messages.

The ambulance doctor František moves away from his wife Bohuna to his new love Helena. She has been married for several years to the successful writer Karl. However, thanks to her husband's philandering, she was by no means happy in it. It seems that František and Helena are finally waiting for peaceful days and now, on the threshold of fifty, they will finally be able to experience their satisfied love. However, their enthusiasm is not shared by their past partners.

The psychological story begins innocently enough with a meeting between two young people in the basement of a suburban house. A flirtatious and bored girl, who is not particularly selective about her lovers, provokes an unpredictable reaction in her partner with her unexpected rejection. Not only does the boy rape the girl, but, fearing discovery, he kills her. All this is witnessed by a little boy wandering through the holiday-empty house, who thus becomes an inconvenient and dangerous witness for the murderer. The psychological and later physical "battle" between these two unequal opponents, who are not really opponents at all, culminates in a story of guilt and punishment, and at the same time of a special friendship and loyalty.

This adult comedy looks at the complex, intermingled sexual relationships between a bunch of diverse characters - a barmaid, a part-time prostitute, a hippy, a rocker, a medical student and a confused virgin!

A romantic comedy about love and life of young French teacher Helena.