Vladimír Marek

Fourth Star

The Czech Century

Czech Century brings the key moments of the history of the Czech nation from 1918 to 1989.

Hříchy pro pátera Knoxe

Divided We Fall

In 1943, a childless couple, the Čížeks, decide to hide a Jewish refugee, David Wiener, the son of Čížek's former employer, in the secret pantry of their apartment. Čížek is aware of the danger into which he has brought his household and his neighbours, but he takes helping his fellow man in need for granted. But at the same time, as a largely unheroic hero, he is dying of fear. His personal situation is greatly complicated by the approaching end of the war, when he faces danger from both the Germans and his "honest" fellow Czechs...

Hrad stínů

Prince Thomas longed to prove to himself and his royal parents that he was truly an adult. And on the day he came of age, his father gave him a unique opportunity—an opportunity called Blouzov. Blouzov, an old castle that the prince was to rule alone, was no ordinary place. There were many rumors about it, and they were quite wild. But the truth turned out to be even darker than the speculation. In fact, Blouzov was ruled by the chambermaid Johana with the help of dark forces. She and her equally mischievous son, the water sprite Artur, involved the inexperienced Tomáš in their vile intrigues as soon as he appeared at the castle. And even though he soon gained powerful allies and helpers for his "test of adulthood"—his childhood friend Petr and his beautiful sister Jitka—it was not at all easy to stand up to the evil spells and keep his wits about him at the right moment.

Příběhy slavných

Czech Made Man

The movie is based on the narrative of a Czech multimillionaire who achieved success not by stripping companies, making crooked deals and crony-ism, but by blazing his own trail like Schweikesque self-made man. He realizes early on that he has nobody but himself to rely on. During the totalitarian regime of the 80s, he ambles along his oddball path and then experiences the Velvet Revolution atypically, too - in an asylum amidst nut-cases. After the Revolution, he really gets rolling. To Germany and back. To prison and back. To China and back. The intriguing and endless opportunities afforded by the Internet eventually blossom into virtual prosperity. The hero has everything and is even planning a highly unorthodox family. A happy ending is nigh, until everything goes up in smoke, of course...

Coal Tower

Jakub, a young, small time drug dealer, wakes up to find the police storming the apartment building while his parents are both away on holiday. After flushing all of his "secret stashes" in the toilet, he finds out they are actually there to investigate the death of the girl upstairs, a close childhood friend of his and the family. He slowly retraces the past week that she has been lying dead in her flat and remembers that he asked her to "receive a package" unbeknownst to her from his drug dealer, Pexeso.

Dobrá čtvrť

Horror Story

The distinctive artist, typographer, and writer Josef Váchal is known to the public primarily for his Blood Novel. The surrealistic exuberance of this defense of 19th-century pulp fiction caught the attention of Jaroslav Brabec and his colleagues, who found a corresponding image of 20th-century "trash." The authors' interest focuses primarily on the silent film era, with a journey through the history of cinema continuing through the advent of sound film to the present day (auteur cinema of the 1960s, modern horror), formally employing techniques such as tinted film. The versatile parody intertwines a colorful plot with the story of the author (Váchal/Paseky), who comments on and creates his book, and is further split in the plot into the characters of Fragonard and the Master. As with Váchal, reality increasingly enters the fiction, so that the only "happy ending" turns out to be the artist's finished work.