Karel Hlušička
1924 - 2016Stalingrad
Joseph Vilsmaier
Dominique Horwitz, Thomas Kretschmann
"Stalingrad" follows the progress of a German Platoon through the brutal fighting of the Battle of Stalingrad. After having half their number wiped out and after being placed under the command of a sadistic Captain, the Lieutenant of the platoon leads his men to desert. The men of the platoon attempt to escape from the city which is now surrounded by the Soviet Army.
Stalingrad
Dobrý voják Švejk
Karel Steklý
Rudolf Hrušínský, Eva Svobodová
Good-natured and garrulous, Švejk becomes the Austrian army's most loyal Czech soldier when he is called up on the outbreak of World War I -- although his bumbling attempts to get to the front serve only to prevent him from reaching it. Playing cards and getting drunk, he uses all his cunning and genial subterfuge to deal with the police, clergy, and officers who chivy him toward battle.
The Good Soldier Švejk
Jumping Over Puddles
Karel Kachyňa
Vladimír Dlouhý, Zdena Hadrbolcová
This Czechoslovakian children’s film takes place during the last days of the Austro-Hungarian empire. The young son of a horse trainer loves nothing more than riding his horse, until he is stricken by polio…
Jumping Over Puddles
Kde řeky mají slunce
Václav Krška
Bedřich Vrbský, Karel Hlušička
Based on a novel by Maria Majerova, this well-photographed but routine romantic drama is directed and co-scripted by Vaclav Krska. Set in a more old-fashioned time, the story centers around Lenka (Suzana Fisarskova), a young woman with a domineering, psychologically abusive father. When Lenka falls in love she suffers the ultimate injustice when her father and her family forbid her to marry the man. They see no advantage in such a union and want her to marry a wealthy local landowner instead, for obvious reasons. But Lenka is not as submissive as they think and she runs away to the city to look for the man she loves -- only to find a serious problem, though a surmountable one, is waiting for her.
The Day the Tree Blooms
Maratón
Ivo Novák
Jaromír Hanzlík, Jana Brejchová
It is 5 May 1945 and the uprising against the hated German occupiers has broken out in Prague. The Czech guards open the gate of the Pankrác prison to allow the prisoners to escape en masse. Many of them are shot dead by the German guards but young Ruda (Jaromír Hanzlík) manages to run away. He is taken care of by one of the Prague fighters, concierge Kytka. Kytka hides him in the flat of the house's owner where only the young maid Karla (Jana Brejchová) is left, ordering her to take care of Ruda.
Maratón
Pasáček z doliny
František Vláčil
Vlastimir Drbal, Zdeněk Dušek
In 1947 by the Beskid mountains, the traces of war still linger, destroyed tanks dispersed throughout the farmland creating an eerie backdrop. This film follows a ten-year-old boy and the strange visions he encounters, his world of fantasy exacerbated with ample time, space, and a lack of companionship or guidance. We see the adults that influence and dominate his life, for better or for worse. Surreal and packed with an excellent study of human emotions and motivations compounded by their rural, isolated vacuum of a town, this is a timeless and severely underrated film from a brilliant Czech director.
The Little Shepherd Boy from the Valley
7 dní hříchů
Jiří Chlumský
Ondřej Vetchý, Vica Kerekes
This story actually happened in the region around the city of Sumperk in Jeseniky Mountains in May 1945. The disappearance of Agnes, the German wife of a Czech forester Jan Olsan is a dark mystery. She is the only one who knows who and for what reason is looking for her. It's the end of the war, times are bad and the Czechs are coming back from the inland to the frontier. The guards are forming and soldiers are coming. Fate brings together the outlaw Jan and his German brother-in-law Jurgen who has just returned from the eastern front line. Both men are looking for exactly the same woman and that is Agnes. But Agnes escaped; she is running away through the deep woods followed by the most powerful man of the county. Running away for what she had witnessed. The fatality of the relationship between Agnes and Jan can only be learned in the mountains on this thorny journey.
Seven Days of Sin
