Online catalogue

Fifty years after the death of Jiří Trnka, French director Joël Farges explores his life and work. Farges first met Trnka – albeit indirectly – as a little boy when he saw his film Prince Bayaya. Charmed by Trnka’s work to this day, documentary filmmaker Farges sets out to “find his friend” in Prague. To depict his journey, he chose an unusual format of live-action documentary in which he himself is played by actor Réginald Huguenin, who is guided by knowledgeable Tereza Brdečková, daughter of Trnka’s long-time friend and collaborator Jiří Brdečka. One of the film’s story lines depicts the search for a copy of the film Bayaya but more important are the historical facts from Trnka’s life. We learn them thanks to the film’s narrator and the memories of Trnka’s colleagues and his family. The authors also dug out some previously unknown archive footage and photographs. So apart from exploring Trnka’s incredible work, the film puts together a picture of an artist who produced art against the backdrop of intricate and dark events of the 20^th century. The film acts as an important means of “establishing contact” with one of the most distinctive and notable Czech artists who, as the film’s authors suggest, is being left out of the general European cultural awareness. It is also an informative excursion through Czech history.

In the case of this animated film from the life of one of the best known Spanish directors, one can assume that the titular labyrinth of the turtles refers to the surrealist nature of his work, but even though this film is accompanied by Buñuel’s dreams and visions, the origin of the labyrinth of turtles is far more prosaic. At the beginning of the 1930s, after a storm of outrage broke out mainly in the ranks of rightist organisations following the ban of Buñuel’s latest film The Golden Age (1930), Buñuel set out to one of Spain’s most forgotten and impoverished regions to make something very atypical for him – a documentary. His crew included his close friend, sculptor Ramón Acín, whose idea of how to use the money he invested into this project gradually grew apart from Buñuel’s extreme reality-adapting techniques and his eccentricity. In the labyrinth of turtles, Buñuel faces his own deep and personal problems and unexpectedly also Ramón’s opinions, his relationship with his own father, with Salvador Dalí and even himself. The film uses original footage from Land Without Bread (1933), which was eventually made as proof of Buñuel’s vehemence (among other things). In 2019, Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles won the European Film Award for Best Animated Feature and also the Jury Distinction and the award for Best Original Music at the Annecy Film Festival.

An adventurous story about how easy it is to lose freedom and how hard it is to get it back. A group of street artists arrives on an island lost in the ocean which is ruled by the all-powerful Commander. A botched cannon shot during their performance at a fair triggers a series of dramatic events. Young man Drin, girl Tuvi and seagull Natan are suddenly outnumbered by the Police.

An exclusive premier of the latest feature puppet film by the renowned Czech director and graphic artist Jan Balej, whose trademark style occupies an important position in Czech animation after the Velvet Revolution.

The first feature film about the Slovak national hero Milan Rastislav Štefánik was intended to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the declaration of independent Czechoslovakia. This special effects film balancing between the genres of historical drama, romantic film and adventure thriller (with elements of slapstick comedy) was made by Slovak animator and director Noro Držiak, graduate of the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, as his directorial feature debut. For the chosen genre mix, Štefánik is a more than fitting hero – he was the first Slovak to undertake a voyage around the world, he climbed Mont Blanc several times, was shot down in a plane, conquered many hearts, took an interest in astronomy and on top of all that helped to establish independent Czechoslovakia in 1918. The film inspired by real events follows the life of this steadfast adventurer and intellectual across several continents. At the end of his voyage, the hero meets the love of his life. Sequences with live actors alternate with animated passages and artistically remarkable sets meticulously created during postproduction.