Josef Chvalina

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...

A fiction piece centered around the Czech resistance to the Nazis.

Prague, during World War II. Hana Kaufmann, a Jewish ophthalmologist, marries Dr. Antonín Bureš, a Christian man. When her family is sent to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, their romance turns into a struggle for survival.

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.

Human bravery can take many forms, just as ideas about it can. Small-town public opinion begins to despise a postal clerk because he gave cash to robbers who didn't hesitate to shoot. The result is a successful study of a man whose previous certainties begin to crumble due to a fateful event.

An escort composed of three people transports a huge amount of new one-hundred crown banknotes in a special railway car. At the 196th kilometer, a village girl is waiting at the railway crossing and spots two men removing some packages from the track. The scene is immediately followed by the report of a gun and the unwanted witness is shot dead. Soon afterwards, on the 201st kilometer, the train explodes. Only one of the escorts Lenk (Radoslav Brzobohatý) survives the explosion, taken to hospital with serious injuries. Criminologist Major Kalas (Jirí Sovák) and the very young Second Lieutenant Karlícek (Jaromír Hanzlík) patiently gather facts, leads and testimonies.

Fifteen-year-old Kateřina will once again spend the holidays at the Castle Krabonoš, where her parents are both wardens. She finds it dull because she's got to sit at the castle's ticket office and sell tickets. That is, until the arrival of the new tour guide, Petr, a young history student. She falls in love at first sight. But for Petr she's just a young crazy girl. Katka tries to get Petr's attention in various ways, but all in vain. She makes a last ditch effort by pretending to steal some rare castle steins from the castle's collection. It's only after some detectives arrive that Katka realizes that she may have overdone it, but she finally manages to get Petr to notice her.

A story of love and honor that takes place during the mid-nineteenth century during revolutions, as well as economic, political, and social hypocrisy. Two extraordinary but lonely artists share a passionate love, as evidenced by the preserved letters that they exchanged.

An innkeeper is grieving because his wife left him for a second-rate actor. His two nephews, who are not on speaking terms, have to take over the running of the establishment...

The leader of the emerging organized labor movement in the 1880s, Ladislav Zápotocký-Budečský, is exiled to his native village, where he works as a tailor and continues to raise social awareness among members of the working class.

The Ronov castle has been changed into a hotel, offering stylish facilities to its guests: weddings in the torture chamber, a Black Lancer kidnapping brides, a night's lodging in a family tomb etc. The reformed petty swindler Felix Pacínek (Bohumil Smída) runs the hotel. The business is far from thriving; the place is half-empty, and the jazz band Skeleton, together with their singer Zuzanka (Jaroslava Obermaierová), decide to leave. Nobody in the hotel has any idea that the band is in fact a gang of thieves who have just robbed the Prague State Bank, taking two million crowns from its vaults.

A loose sequel to the film Little Bobes, it catches up with the title child hero in the town where he and his parents have moved. However, the expectations of a better existence are disrupted by the ever worsening social conditions in the 1930s, and living on the periphery of the big city allows even the little boy to see how evil the exploiters of the workers are. This is a graphic demonstration of how ideological features have also very insensitively crept into children's films. When Bobsha's father couldn't find work after an accident, he decided to sell the cottage and move to the city with his family. He lives in a small house on the periphery and the surrounding environment contrasts strongly with his former home. It takes Bobš a long time to get used to it. A loose sequel to the film "Little Bobesh".

A colour-printed melodramatic selanca from the beginnings of the organised labour movement in Bohemia... Antonín Zápotocký, the second workers' president, is the author of the literary novel Rozbřesk - the plot is said to be inspired by the fate of his grandmother and mother.

A successful art historian who has trouble telling people difficult truths, finds himself in an inescapable situation when a small lie quickly gets out of hand.

The distressing fate of the Czech great Jan Amos Komenský, forced to leave his homeland after the White Mountain disaster. It depicts his encounters with various European personalities of the 17th century - the Queen of Sweden, artists and scientists. It emphasises the hero's nobility, but also his inner resilience, which allowed him to overcome many personal and professional tragedies. The parable of The Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart becomes part of the story. However, Comenius's concept is sculpturally lifeless and, in particular, the religious dimension is "erased" from it. The simplistic biography therefore does not avoid schoolboyish dryness.

Jan Zika is the legendary hero of the communist resistance movement during World War II and leading functionary of the second underground Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.

Detective Lieutenant Boruvka (Lubomír Lipský) is called to the State Scientific Library to investigate the loss of a precious manuscript, the Infernal Psalter of the Occult Sciences by Master Peregrinus from the eleventh century, written in a secret script which has only recently been deciphered by senior lecturer Zajíc (Josef Chvalina). Chaos is reigning in the labyrinth of passages and halls of the former monastery where the library is housed. In order to save space the director of the library has introduced a peculiar system. The books are arranged in the bookcases according to height and six girls dressed in black, the library assistants, are quite happy to cut volumes down to size in case of need. Boruvka refuses the case, since he is specialist in murders. He has to return to the investigation, however, when senior lecturer Zajíc disappears.

A communist agent, who has successfully caught on with the stupidly gullible American secret services, does not have it easy - he is threatened with exposal, but he still rescues a Czech scientist whom the evil imperialists wanted to kidnap. It was supposed to be a psychological portrait of an intelligence officer under intense stress, yet convinced of his truth...

Worker Šebesta does not rejoice with the others in the May Day parade, as his boots are weighing him down. The following working day does not bring him a good mood either. At a plant-wide meeting, he comes into conflict with the young striker Brejcha from the United Engineering Works. He demands an increase in the production of heating elements so that the new hall can be completed before the deadline. The workers react to his passionate speech about the improvement efforts with distrust and, with a bit of mockery, challenge him to prove his words with action in their plant...

Captain Jirák of the SNB is searching for the perpetrator of the murder of the former owner of an apartment building on the outskirts of town, which took place more than twenty years ago.

No description available.

A new owner of the estate, Konrád Ritter von Schiess, arrives in the Czech village of Sluky. On his orders, the inhabitants of the village are to be evicted and only 30 families are allowed to remain, who volunteer to work on the estate. However, the inhabitants refuse to work for the lords, and their solidarity only strengthens when one of them is murdered by the Gestapo based on a report by the estate manager Prokeš...

Doctor Adéla Neradová, a medical doctor, has succumbed to the desire to uncover a criminal and become a kind of Sherlock Holmes in skirts. The thankless role of her Dr. Watson has fallen to her husband Peter, a professional photographer who helps her with the cases she gets involved in, but usually gets everything mixed up.

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

The movie describes proletarian life in the Czech Lands after World War I.

The heroes of the Czech film comedy are the students of the Business Academy, who sleep in the school desks under the avalanche of a large amount of study material, without which they say they will not be able to do without in their future profession. One of the least popular teachers is the strict and unyielding Professor Wolf, proud of his textbook. Nevertheless, student life is relatively calm, but only until the holidays come and the students go directly to the field for their holiday practice. The film follows how unhappy the first encounter with business reality turned out for three of them, for Karel Zeman, Ivan Javorský and Vašek Pelíšek...

At the end of the occupation, Vojta, a young worker, marries the daughter of a rich builder to protect her from being deployed to the German Reich. Vojta agrees because he secretly loves Alena. But when the newlywed's family learns that Vojta is suspected of anti-German actions in the foundry, the marriage is over...

A worker steals bits and pieces of building materials from work to construct a new home for himself and his girlfriend. When he discovers that she’s having an affair with his boss, he devises one elaborate plot after another to murder the rival, each time with pathetic results.

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.

Even in the 1970s, films were made in this country that emphasized not only the necessity to defend the impermeability of the Western borders by all means, but mainly rehabilitated the Stalinist era. Told with ridiculous patheticness, the story is set in 1951 and takes place in army circles, depicting the disputes over the most effective air defence of the border... It chooses to depict the working disputes between an experienced, but already mentally stagnant general and a young politruk who advocates a modern conceptual solution to the common task.

A Czech satirical comedy, filmed according to a script by the State Prize laureate Jiří Marek based on several of his satirical short stories. The film contains three stories, the first of which mocks careerism, the second takes aim at the inadequate attitude of some of our literary critics, and the final story is a satirical picture of how irresponsible construction work is still done in some parts of our country.

When Dr. Hahn is found murdered in the hospital’s inspection room, investigators question several suspects: his colleague and longtime lover Dr. Marie Nováková (whom he cheated on with nurse Jiřina), the nurse herself, Dr. Petera (whose career he stymied), a senile patient named Zima, and the inept clinic head. As police sift through truthful and deceptive testimonies, complex professional rivalries and personal entanglements among the hospital staff come to light.

The inhabitants of a picturesque village proud of its ancient linden tree will be disturbed by a disturbing event - a temporary road diversion is supposed to lead through the village. At first the population protests against the increased traffic, but eventually gets used to the bustle and excitement. Some, such as the innkeeper, benefit from the situation...

Hairdresser Žofka Stárková desires fame perhaps more than other girls. The petty plans of her fiancé František do not satisfy her wild imagination. Žofka suddenly gains popularity when, while on her way to get an autograph, she discovers the dead body of the famous tenor Helbich and is arrested on suspicion of murder. Helbich actually committed suicide because he lost his voice. After being released from prison, Žofka receives an offer for the lead role in a forthcoming film. The dubious fame confuses her. She leaves her parents' modest apartment and quits her hairdressing business. Unfortunately, it soon becomes clear that she has no talent for acting, and the desperate director has the film edited in such a way that Žofka practically disappears from it...

A detective story revolving around an ancient treasure from the ninth century, believed to have been destroyed during World War II, takes place in an archaeological environment. Its main character is, alongside Captain Exner, who is investigating a strange murder committed on the premises of a scientific institute, a young student at the Academy of Sciences and Arts of the Slovak Republic, Kamila Housková, who discovers that the treasure was not destroyed, but most likely stolen. The bright girl continues her search for the treasure against Captain Exner's will and leads the investigators to a trail that proves the connection between the lost treasure and the murdered woman...

In the past, most of the wood from the mountain forests was transported to the sawmills by river. The rafters were gradually replaced by trucks and railways, but they still remember the days of their glory and the romance of water travel. Two experienced old swimmers, Váň and Šindelář, managed to push for a return to the old way, at least for one trip. They got a group of like-minded enthusiasts and rafts made of logs can set off down the river...

The life of the famous French writer Alexander Dumas the Elder. Screenwriter Jaroslav Dietl did not hide his admiration for this literary giant, and in addition to the screenplay he also wrote a three-part TV play about Dumas (starring Vladimír Menšík). In Kachyn's film, Dumas played the father and son of the Štěpánková brothers, and it was a very difficult and difficult task for these young actors.

A psychological film about the sense of self-fulfillment of a divorced couple over 30 who feel that life is slipping through their fingers. While she, a nurse by profession, is adapting better, he, unreliable and always improvising, is searching in vain for his clue and even tries to get back to his ex-wife.

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.

During the Second World War, an old fortress is transformed into a detention camp for arrested allied generals who the Germans provide with every possible comfort. In the nearby garrison camp, however, hundreds of captured private soldiers try to survive hunger and cold.

At the end of the First World War, Nikola Shuhai and his friend from the army desert. On the way home, to the village of Kolochava, they both find refuge with baby Jaga. Jaga mixes them a drink to protect them from the deadly bullets. The bachelors must promise to marry her daughters in exchange for a drink, or they will be punished. Nikola finds his home village in poverty. He stands against the powerful and the rich, and they turn the gendarmes against him. Nikola hides from them in the woods, where he will remain even after the end of the war, because nothing has changed for the villagers. Out of poverty and hopelessness, other men join Nikola and together they raid the wealthy. Nikola distributes the obtained booty to the poor and needy, who see him as their protector and hero.

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.

The happenings in a shoe factory serve as a not very thinly veiled examination of the pros and cons of both socialism and democracy.

During World War II, a German university professor creates a spy ring that supplies the Allies with information about Nazi plans...

A cunning plan to deprive an "illegal millionaire" of his ill-gotten wealth. But the catch is that someone else has an even more subtle plan...

Antique dealer Kohout is not a bad person. However, he has an ideal: to be the unlimited master at home. Therefore, he does not see his wife's wishes, nor the fact that his daughter Helena has found a groom, that his other daughter has fallen in love, and that his son is a passionate swimmer. He would like to run their lives according to his old-fashioned ideas. However, Zdenka's suitor, engineer Bečvář, uses a trap to gain Kohout's favor. The antique dealer even offers him Zdenka's hand in marriage. In addition, Kohout's brother, a forester, enters the story, who comes to Prague for a visit. By coincidence, the two brothers switch roles and the family considers their father a dear uncle...

Three detective stories, three different views of life and death... Collection of three horror short stories.

A group of temporary workers arrive at the Czech-German border to conduct geological exploration. However, not all people have pure intentions and a past, and so the group of geologists is threatened by saboteurs who want to blow up an abandoned mine and escape across the border...

Two historical stories about love. In the story "The Arabian Horse", the scheming townsman Messer Francesco Vergellesi is so firmly convinced of his wife's virtue that he does not hesitate to bet her against a rare stallion he has a crush on... The story "The Earrings" shows how a poor girl can help herself to a rare jewel and what intrigues are needed for an elderly noble couple to finally have an heir...

Film shows the struggle of the Czechoslovak armed forces against groups of Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) under command Burlak, who tried to pass through the territory of Slovakia.