ATA (2021)
Section: New Czech Films and TV Programmes
Directed by: Vít Mazánek
Czech Republic, 2021, 67 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema, sál 6
Score:
It all started innocently. Two students from Litomyšl, Jan Pech and František Snopek, out of boyish devilishness, tore up and flushed portraits of Stalin and Gottwald down the school's toilet. The school janitor is on the case, but our two protagonists are not the only ones suspected of the crime. Arrests and interrogations were a political tool of the Communist Party in its struggle against entities that refused to obey it.
Wind (2020)
Section: Panorama
Directed by: Dadren Wanggyal
China, 2020, 96 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema, sál 6
Score:
Gelak is an illegitimate child, living with her mom Samdan alone in a distant Tibetan village, where women are not allowed to join the Sang Offering to the Sacred Mountain. Samdan has always relied on men for a living, and Gelak has been treated as a vicious witch by the villagers. Fed up with the prejudice she has to face growing up, Gelak decides to challenge the traditions and fight for herself…
Frankenstein (1931)
Section: Literature in Film - Classics
Directed by: James Whale
United States of America, 1931, 70 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema, sál 6
Score:
Dr. Frankenstein, a reclusive scientist increasingly obsessed with his unusual experiments, dares to tamper with life and death by creating a human monster out of lifeless body parts. When a criminal’s brain is inadvertently transplanted inside the creature with potentially dangerous effects, its creators decide that it must be destroyed.
The Defender (2021)
Section: New Czech Films and TV Programmes
Directed by: Tomáš Mašín
Czech Republic, 2021, 64 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema, sál 6
Score:
In a diagnostic institute in northern Bohemia, an inmate kills an educator. The Minister promises a vigorous solution and instructs the school ombudsman to investigate the whole situation on the spot. Aleš Pelán finds himself on the first day in office in an environment that is foreign to him. Where children and adults do not trust each other…
My Sunny Maad (2021)
Section: New Czech Films and TV Programmes
Directed by: Michaela Pavlátová
Czech Republic, France, Slovak Republic, 2021, 85 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema, sál 4
Score:
The story of a Czech girl named Helena, or "Herry", who leaves Prague to marry her classmate Nazir in Kabul. In addition to the vision of a loving future in a large family, the young woman from Bohemia is also attracted by the desire for new experiences in an exotic environment.
The Book Thief (2013)
Section: Literature in Film - Young Academy
Directed by: Brian Percival
Germany, United States of America, 2013, 131 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema, sál 3
Score:
A profoundly moving story of a girl who transforms the lives of those around her during World War II, Germany. Although Liesel is illiterate when she is adopted by a German couple, her adoptive father encourages her to learn to read. Ultimately, the power of words helps Liesel and Max, a Jew hiding in the family’s home, escape from the events unfolding around them in this extraordinary, acclaimed film directed by Brian Percival.
All Quiet on the Western Front (1979)
Section: Literature in Film - Classics
Directed by: Delbert Mann
United States of America, United Kingdom, 1979, 150 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema, sál 5
Score:
Paul Baumer is a young German who, along with his graduating high school classmates, enlists in the German Imperial Army during World War I. Originally thinking war would be a great adventure, Paul and his friends discover exactly the opposite as the war drags on and one by one the members of the class are killed in action until only Paul remains.
The Crossing (2021)
Section: International Competition of Feature Films in the Youth Category
Directed by: Florence Miailhe
France, Czech Republic, Germany, 2021, 83 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema, sál 5
Score:
The story, inspired by the fate of the author's family from an area of Jewish settlements in Russia in the past, follows the vicissitudes of an adventurous and dramatic journey of two children, Kyona and her brother Adriel. They flee across half the world from the hatred and persecution of a repressive government, representing a generic type of totalitarian regime in the 20th century. The sensitive and engaging depiction of the path to adolescence in a comprehensible form tells the fate of the victims trapped under fascism, the Holocaust, and communism; its style may remotely recall Dickens' Oliver Twist or some great novels of 19th century literature. It is also a parable about a person striving for freedom and hope, but who must withstand the difficult trials on the painful path that ultimately leads to them.
The City (2021)
Section: New Czech Films and TV Programmes
Directed by: Jiří Diviš
Czech Republic, 2021, 75 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema, sál 6
Score:
Klára, Viki, and Mechanik live on the edge of the law. As a junkie, Viki is looking for money for a regular dose, preferably by stealing. Mechanic keeps his distance; he's a dealer but doesn't use. Klára has partially recovered from addiction, but she's homeless, and soon she'll give birth. The turf they run in is ruled by a pair of loan sharks. An ex-boxer and his partner Majk. Their destinies intersect dramatically over 24 hours. And it will cost someone their life.
The Downfall of the Secluded Berhof (1983)
Section: Literature in Film - Classics
Directed by: Jiří Svoboda
Czechoslovakia, Poland, 1983, 98 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema, sál 6
Score:
The first post-war summer, the Czech-Polish-German border. The people of the isolated Berghof farm become prisoners of the Werewolves, who refuse to admit Germany’s defeat. The conflict is an analysis of a marginal human situation and the people who oscillate between extremes. The central character of the story is a nun, Salome, bringing everything to the lonely farm except the expected mercy. One of her antagonists is a Czechoslovak lieutenant who tries hard to ensure order.
The Pack (2020)
Section: Open-Air Cinema
Directed by: Tomáš Polenský
Czech Republic, Latvia, Slovak Republic, 2020, 94 min
Projection place: Open Air Cinema
Score:
Ice skates cut the ice. Silhouettes of hockey players swirl in the spray of the frost, and sharp scratches remain on the ice behind them. Talented goalkeeper David (16) is joining a new team. He will do everything in his power to make a name for himself in the Wolves hockey team. But the position of the current goalkeeper Miky (16) seems unshakable. In addition, Miky is the son of a coach. David really doesn't fit in with the Wolves. Maybe it's the small plastic box that pumps insulin into his body. But David will not be defeated by diabetes. He is an outsider in the team and faces an avalanche of bullying. Those who do not attack also do no not help. David tries to fight, but the result is even worse. Pushes, injuries and humiliations pile on each other like the spiral scars of tracks engraved by ice skates. What will David do?
Ashes in the Snow (2018)
Section: Literature in Film - Young Academy
Directed by: MARIUS A. MARKEVICIUS
Lithuania, United States of America, 2018, 100 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema, sál 4
Score:
During World War II, a 16-year-old aspiring artist and her family are deported to Siberia amidst Stalin’s brutal dismantling of the Baltic region. One girl’s passion for art and her never-ending hope will break the silence of history.
La Francisca, A Chilean Youth (2020)
Section: Panorama
Directed by: Rodrigo Litorriaga
Belgium, France, Chile, 2020, 80 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema, sál 6
Score:
Francisca lives in a small town found between the Atacama desert and the Pacific Ocean. She dreams of leaving, but she has a little brother, Diego, who is imprisoned in his deep autism and mutism. When Fernando, Diego's new teacher, offers to apply some new pedagogical initiatives aimed at helping him, Francisca decides to take the chance and agrees, without imagining that she might be involved in an irreversible issue.
Božena - Part 3 (2021)
Section: New Czech Films and TV Programmes
Directed by: Lenka Wimmerová
Czech Republic, 2021, 82 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema, sál 4
Score:
The third part of a 4-part television miniseries about Božena Němcová. Having survived a marital crisis, the Němecs are living in the small town of Domažlice. It is 1847 and Josef is an acclaimed financial commissioner and Božena a dreaded "reporter" from the Czech countryside for a newspaper. Both live for politics and for the hope that the emperor will finally recognize Czech rights. They have the same goals and are a strong couple – until revolution upends their lives and dreams.
1984 (1984)
Section: Literature in Film - Classics
Directed by: Michael James Radford
United Kingdom, 1984, 110 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema, sál 6
Score:
The classic George Orwell story set in a world where absolute conformity in action, word and thought including loyalty to Big Brother is demanded. In 1984, the world is divided into three vast states, whose inhabitants are dominated by all powerful governments. Winston, a worker, starts an illegal love affair with Julia, and becomes the target of a brain-washing campaign to force him to conform.
Her Name Was Jo (2020)
Section: Panorama
Directed by: Joe Duca
United States of America, 2020, 103 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema, sál 5
Score:
When 10-year-old Jo’s abusive junkie stepdad, ODs on heroine, she panics when the police come, and flees with her friend Selma in her step-dad’s beat-up Buick. They are bound for Los Angeles, in hopes of finding her biological father, who she only knows from an old CD left her by her deceased mother, folk singer Johnny Alvarez. On the way, they must contend with trains, meth heads, unexpected deaths, and more; it’s a poetic, yet brutal portrait of the dark side of Americana.
Beans (2020)
Section: International Competition of Feature Films in the Junior Category
Directed by: Tracey Deer
Canada, 2020, 92 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema, sál 4
Score:
Twelve-year-old Beans is on the edge: torn between innocent childhood and reckless adolescence, he is forced to grow up fast and become the tough Mohawk warrior she needs to be during the Oka Crisis, the turbulent Indigenous uprising that tore Quebec and Canada apart for 78 tense days in the summer of 1990.