And the Oscar goes to...

The first set of screenings will present the best of Czech cinema - films that were awarded an Academy Award (Oscar) for Best Foreign Language Film - Closely Observed Trains, Kolya - or got a nomination: Blonde in Love, Elementary School.


Thursday / 27. 4. / 20:00 / Opening Ceremonial at 19:30!
BLONDE IN LOVE / Lásky jedné plavovlásky (1965)

Czechoslovakia / 1965 / 75 minutes / director: Miloš Forman / screenplay: Miloš Forman, Jaroslav Papoušek, Ivan Passer / cinematography: Miroslav Ondříček / music: Josef Illín / editing: Miroslav Hájek / cast: Hana Brejchová (Andula), Vladimír Pucholt (Milda), Vladimír Menšík (Vacovský), Milada Ježková (Mildova matka), Josef Šebánek (Mildův otec) /

A bittersweet tragicomedy of Miloš Forman continues in naivistic storytelling about growing-up teenagers in socialist Czechoslovakia in the 60's. Young and shameful Andula is a model of simple minded girl, who knows in her life only boardinghouse, factory and dreams. When she finally meets a charming musician Milda on a local dancing party, she is amused and decides to visit him in Prague, where he comes from. The situation then comes much more complicated, when Andula realizes, that she is not the one-and-only...


Thursday / 11. 5. / 20:00
CLOSELY OBSERVED TRAINS / Ostře sledované vlaky (1966)

Czechoslovakia / 1966 / 89 minutes / director: Jiří Menzel / screenplay: Bohumil Hrabal, Jiří Menzel / cinematography: Jaromír Šofr / editing: Jiřina Lukešová / music: Jiří Šust / cast: Václav Neckář (Miloš Hrma), Jitka Bendová (Máša), Vladimír Valenta (station master), Libuše Havelková (his wife), Josef Somr (train dispatcher Hubička) /

The end of WWII. A young and sexually not experienced man Milos Hrma follows the footsteps of his father and joins the railway company on a local railway station, where he goes through two different moments of iniciation, sexual and patriotic. In this local microcosm of a railway station he learns the job, has his first affair but the most significant task arises a bit later...


Thursday / 25. 5. / 20:00
THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL / Obecná škola (1991)

Czech Republic / 1991 / 90 minutes / director: Jan Svěrák / screenplay: Zdeněk Svěrák / cinematography: František A. Brabec / střih: Alois Fišárek / music: Jiří Svoboda / cast: Jan Tříska (Igor Hnízdo), Zdeněk Svěrák (Souček), Libuše Šafránková (Součková), Rudolf Hrušínský (ředitel), Václav Jakoubek (Eda) /

It´s the year 1945. One class in a small village is so indisciplined and naughty that the teacher lady quits and is replaced by another one - the strict and militant Igor Hnizdo (Jan Triska) becomes a class teacher, and his only weakness seems to be his interest in young women. Reminiscence on the grow-up years in after WWII Czechoslovakia was writen by Zdeněk Svěrák and directed by his son Jan as a feature debut.


Thursday / 8. 6. / 20:00
KOLYA / Kolja (1996)


Czech Republic, Great Britain, France / 1996 / 108 minutes / director: Jan Svěrák / screenplay: Zdeněk Svěrák / cinematography: Vladimír Smutný / editing: Alois Fišárek / music: Ondřej Soukup / cast: Zdeněk Svěrák (František Louka), Andrej Chalimon (Kolya), Libuše Šafránková (Klára), Ondřej Vetchý (Brož), Nela Boudová (Brožová) /

Franta Louka is a concert cellist in Soviet-occupied Czechoslovakia, a confirmed bachelor and a lady's man. Because of his debts he accepts the offer of his friend to marry a Russian woman so that she can get Czech papers. An easy way to gain money gradually turns into a nightmare - Louka´s "wife" leaves the country and leaves her five-year-old son with his grandmother. When she dies, small Kolya comes to stay at Louka who is not very comfortable with that at first...