Karel Urbánek

A frightening atmosphere, full of chilling dampness and darkness, follows the fate of a desperate searcher who tries in vain to unravel the supposed secret of the altarpiece...

Comedy, 1974 (Czech Republic) : The movie takes place in England. A group of married middle-aged gentlemen have founded a pretense amateur Egyptology society to maintain some degree of freedom from their wives. The elaborate trick gradually escalates into more and more tangled web of lies and tricks, until they have no option but to disband the society for good.

Honza and Zuzana are very young husband and wife. They have a little daughter of whom willingly occasionally take care the grandparents and Honza's fifteen-year-old brother Martin. Zuzana continues studying and Honza devotes all weekends as an amateur competitor to the motor-cycles at the speedway. Zuzana is not interested in motor-cycles. Martin holds responsible for his brother's marriage and at the advice of his friend Magda, who is of the same age, invites her sister-in-law to the club of Hucul horses so that she does not feel bored. But by misfortunes and unexplained quarrels both young husband and wife start being jealous of one another.

Two kind but foolish sisters live together in their villa in a small town in South Bohemia. Fany (Natasa Gollová) has never married and Andelka (Eva Svobodová) is a widow. In the morning, the two sisters go into town. They need to buy fuel oil, put money in the bank and give plums to the teller. In the meantime an smallish orange Skoda MB car parks at their house, with Hermínka (Iva Janzurová), the old ladies' niece, and her fiancé Michal (Jirí Hrzán) in it. Michal has forgotten to bring flowers and has to go into town to fetch them. At the bank, Fany wants to deposit money but the minute the teller opens the safe, a thief arrives. He knocks the teller and Fany unconscious and runs away with the money. When Fany comes to her senses again, she sees Michal and accuses him of being the thief.

Mr. Benda, a married father of two children, works for a company that liquidates old banknotes. After one drunken party, he is visited by a painter who tattooed his back in drunkenness the previous night. The image tattooed on Benda’s back is considered the painter’s best work by the professionals.

The Czech film Svítalo All Night was made to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the liberation of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Army and is dedicated to all those who fought and gave their lives in Prague in the May Uprising of 1945. Behind the historical events, the creators see mainly their simple, unassuming participants. Thus, we are presented with a number of apt portraits, whether it is the central hero Dr. Soukup and nurse Daniela on the side of the fighting Czechs, or a captain and a simple private in a Red Army unit coming to the aid of the fighting Prague, or an old, war-weary German major, who only realises the senselessness of the war at the sight of a fanatical, cynical lieutenant for whom Nazi ideology represents the meaning of life.

A budding teacher comes from Prague to the South Bohemian district town where her fiancé Jakub, a young promising engineer at the local paper mill, lives. Petra is getting to know her new colleagues at school and the children in her new class, and is practicing hard with the Komenium music group, whose members she has known since her studies. She also gets to know Jakub's colleagues and the director of the paper mill, to whose position Jakub would like to be appointed after his retirement. It is this desire for a high position that leads Jakub to behave and act in a way that Petra cannot approve of.

Two aspiring car racers have a big dream: they want to make a journey to the heart of Africa. But their value system is severely skewed, and one of them is willing to steal to do it. What's more, he causes a car accident, from which he tries to escape, and ends up in prison.

This film is about life of a family, which lived in Prague since since 1968 to 1980. Father of the family comes from Ukraine and so every year someone from Ukraine to visit this family and to buy something more better than is in Ukraine. As the times go by, the friens of family live in Austria. And now for change the family visit "a better life" in west Europe and they found out how it is to be something second-rate.

Several big-city teenagers are falsely accused of vandalizing a valuable organ, casting light on the hypocrisy of the adult world.

Even great love does not necessarily overcome a difference of morals - although the young hero is very much in love, he still rejects the comfortable and easy existence he could lead thanks to the family of his future father-in-law. A tediously moralistic comedy, it picks up with all seriousness the morality of a socialist man who has broken forever with petty bourgeois ideas. It is therefore too contrived, nor does it succeed in elevating the tawdry story in any way. A comedy about life's little and big compromises.

The popular Moravanka brass band performs at the fair. Vasek Pivoňka, the bandleader of the local brass band Kulatěnky, which broke up, decides to put the band back together. The village musicians are sceptical at first, but later they start rehearsing with vigour. Standa, a Prague resident who is working in a pig farm to cure his nerves, helps them to organise the concert. He really likes Evica Kocourková, but her father keeps an eye on her. Young Šišák tries to charm the teacher Olina. Before the performance can begin, the band must succeed before the cultural committee. However, they fail to do so. The disappointed musicians play for themselves at the station and suddenly they are successful. Standa comes up with an idea how to push Kulatěnka through without the permission of the commission. A concert of Moravanka is being prepared in nearby Nechvalin.

The former reputed lover and bon vivant Petr Vok from Rožmberk was widowed at the age of sixty-three. The loss of his much younger wife is hard to bear and it seems that nothing in his life will please him anymore. His loyal friends and servants do everything possible and impossible to cheer him up, but sometimes interesting situations arise, such as when they get him a guaranteed real mermaid. Will anyone be able to cure the master of his lethargy?

Twelve-year-old Jana returns from the hospital. She notices some changes at home and is worried that her parents are going to divorce. In reality, however, they are expecting another child.

The forest worker František Hrubý, a poor, hard-working man, lives with his granddaughter in a lonely cottage. Despite being in his sixties, he is still a furiant who does not let anyone talk to him, but talks to everyone himself. His desire to interfere in the lives of his companion, daughter, granddaughter or friends is rooted in his fear of loneliness and death. He also can't accept that the work he has loved all his life has become too much of a strain...

A remake of Vávra's 1948 atomic age thriller Krakatit. Engineer Prokop creates the devastating explosive “Krakatit” and soon confronts manipulative agents and imperialist conspiracies. Realizing his invention’s threat, he fights to prevent its misuse, risking everything to stop those who seek to exploit his epochal discovery.

In the winter of 1944, chief of surgery at a small-town Czech hospital is suspected of Nazi collaboration by his community.

The opera lady singer Ema Destinnová is in all her splendor at the American stages. But in Europe there rages war and she decides to return home to Bohemia.

A short film about Prague, Prague residents, and the beginning of the weekend.

In May 1945, a broken violinist lies drunk by a creek, haunted by memories of his life before and during WWII. Once the celebrated first violin in spa orchestras, he married Jewish nurse Róza and dreamed of fatherhood, only to face brutal anti-Jewish persecution. Relegated to second violin, he spirals into alcoholism and betrayal, while Róza and their daughter are deported. Cast out by colleagues and lovers, he descends into madness, murdering a vagrant with his violin case. In a final psychotic haze, he tends a roadside Christ statue before collapsing, his shattered life a testament to love, loss, and atrocity.

When former criminal Gaudl discovers the strange behaviour of his son-in-law Professor Horacek, he becomes worried about his daughter Hedwig and starts to gather evidence. When his suspicions seem justified, he visits his former colleague and friend, Lieutenant Colonel Maca. Little does Hedvika know that her husband is having an affair with their lodger Daniela. When her husband tells her of his intention to divorce her, she makes a scene at the least convenient time, while driving the car. This causes a crash in which a young hitchhiker is killed. She persuades her husband to drive away from the scene of the accident. In doing so, she takes a picture of her husband hiding the young girl's corpse in the woods. She now has a gun in her hand to blackmail the man, who decides to settle the matter once and for all.

A smiling holiday story about an old car named Cleopatra and its four-member, all-male crew...

Even the best of friends can fall apart, often all it takes is a minor misunderstanding. That's exactly what happened to two village friends, children finishing elementary school, between whom hostility and suspicion suddenly set in. The mosaic-like plot contains a number of humorous observations, but overall it distances itself from any ambition to deeply affect the mentality of adolescents, much less the countryside.

A fairy tale about Petr the coal miner and Sklenáříček the elf... You may find it incomprehensible that someone could crave wealth as strongly as Petr the coal miner in today's fairy tale. And to get it, he accepts an incredibly cruel offer. Believe me, it won't be long before Peter understands what true wealth in life is. His pathological desire for wealth has brought him to the brink of destruction. The evil forest spirit Obrmichal manages to replace Peter's heart with a piece of cold stone, but not for long. Regaining his own human heart will restore Peter's love for people and compassion for his fellow man...

A Midsummer Night's Dream is a charming comedy by W. Shakespeare, well-known from its numerous stage and film adaptations. In the course of one night, the world of real and fairy-tale characters collide, the king Theseus plans a wedding, the capricious king of the elves Oberon wants to punish his consort Titania, and above all, two couples of lovers, entwined by love, wander through the night. And few people notice that at the beginning of the comedy there is a threat - Egeus, Hermia's father, appeals to the king Theseus for his right. If his daughter does not want to marry the man he has chosen for her, he intends to send her to her death. And so it is only a good thing that Oberon and the elf Puck in his service stir up the feelings of Demetrius and Lysander with the help of a magic flower...

A broadly drawn ideological epic set in the summer of 1947 in the borderlands of northern Bohemia: reactionary elements plot to undermine postwar social change while committed local communists struggle to organize workers and defend the emerging order. The narrative follows several archetypal figures—steadfast party activists, wary peasants, and obstructive reactionaries—whose clashes illustrate the claimed inevitability of working-class victory under communist leadership.

Black comedy about a genius inventor and two young, smart and beautiful women. Both of them putting all their effort into getting the one man. This will inevitable lead to all sorts of mischief, crime and even a murder. This murder-comedy, shot at the dawn of normalization has intentionally broke off from any connection to the reality of its time. The director Zdeněk Podskalský has focused on creating intriguing story lines, revolving around the two endeavouring female characters who are fighting for the same man. Two competing parties are not only ready to kill the other, but also (if necessary) the potential groom. This film has enabled the members of the cast, composed mainly of the brightest stars of the Czech acting scene of that time, to show an incredible acting range, from the lightest comedy to the darkest cynical morbidity.

A mail truck is robbed near the small town of Kostelec, during which the perpetrators steal CZK 2.5 million. The local police fail to solve the case. After some time, a young and capable lieutenant Charvát arrives from the Prague CID. While he is getting acquainted with the circumstances of the case and the evidence found, he makes friends with the handsome Květa, the daughter of the hostel manager Weisse. The complicated relationship that develops between the two lovers is in no way comparable to the complexity of the criminal case that brought Charvat to Kostelec. Things get even more complicated when someone murders Malásek, a local brawler and drunkard, with a shotgun. He is actually Květa's husband. And his death, according to Charvat, is connected to the mail robbery...

Civil engineer Luděk Turna accepts an attractive offer from a Prague design office. He tries to get ahead even at the cost of deception, but he recovers in time and voluntarily leaves to build a motorway...

Two young returnees from the First World War face a difficult future because they cannot find work. One eventually finds a job as an electrician, the other breaks into the Social Democratic press, where he gets the chance to watch up close how the Social Democratic leadership deceives its members and enters the service of the ruling classes. And a newly-trained journalist solves the problem of whether he should also adapt to the corrupt environment...

Two families live in a weaver's cottage - the Menecs and the Hroms. The women are pretty from the start. Musicians come, inviting fellow weavers who play in Menec's band to the May Day festival. Wanderers wander through the region, encountering a procession on their way. The police disperse it, so the men, who have various professions, join the wanderers. They wander around the world until they reach a tavern, where they get food and a bed. An old spinning wheeler composes a song at the request of one wanderer, inviting everyone to a "wanderer's convention". And so they get together and play together...

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High school students experience the everyday worries of their age - they prepare for their high school graduation, go on a production internship at an engineering plant, and compete for a ski trip to the Krkonoše Mountains...