Czech Republic

Award-winning, veteran director Irena Pavlaskova's faithful depiction of post-1968 Czechoslovakia and ‘70’s “normalization” opts to push political dissent and repression to the background, favoring a foray into the era's sexual revolution. In an astonishing performance from Vilma Cibulkova as film production coordinator and single mother Marta, she slowly embraces the ethos of the movement, collecting a few boyfriends in the process. Pavlaskova applies a comedic weightlessness to a feature that could easily turn moralistic or overbearing in the hands of a less experienced director.  A fun and entertaining escape for the more adventurous filmgoer. Based on the father/daughter memoir by widely known playwright/novelist Pavel Kohout (colleague of Charter ’77’s Vaclav Havel).

The mayor of a tiny Czech village hatches a plan to quite literally put his town on the map.  With the aid of local businessman, Janta, Mayor Hanacek hopes that staging the 35^th Annual International Deer Calling Championships will attract the attention of the prime minister and bring a much-needed highway to his isolated city.  All he has to do is settle a dispute with the current stag-calling champion, Franta, and keep the local parliament member continually, and excessively, drunk.  This madcap feature from Czech director Robert Sedlácek is sure to leave moviegoers chuckling long after they leave their seats, as he brings back the droll and sly humor of Milos Forman’s ‘60’s classics such as The Firemen’s Ball. 

The lines between loyalty and treachery are blurred in this story of family and politics from Academy Award nominee and veteran director Jan Hrebejk (Divided We Fall). 

Czech psychiatrist Pavel Josek is scheduled to receive the prestigious "Memory of the Nation" award for his work as a former dissident, but revelations about his past jeopardize everything he's worked toward.  This information forces both the characters, and the audience, into a past everyone would much rather forget.