Known for Acting
Two crafty swindlers, Berta and Vitouš, settle in a remote Brdy tavern once inhabited by devils and, when a hellish inspection arrives, impersonate true demons by enlisting the hopelessly inept devil apprentice Záprtek. Meanwhile, a rich mistress’s obsession with golden eyes sends wrongly accused servant Anička to hell’s gates, where she and Záprtek team up to tackle the impossible tasks and find unexpected affection in each other.
After many years, Anka Lomnická, a former countess and emigrant, arrives in Prague. By chance, she finds herself seated next to two characters from a crime story that gradually unfolds around Bubeník, a former guard of political prisoners. With her spontaneity, Anka meets old and new faces, one of whom is Věra, the granddaughter of the former administrator of the Lomnický castle, and her boyfriend, a young detective named Přemek. When Bubeník is found shot dead with a gun in his hand, Přemek is not convinced it was suicide and begins to uncover the past not only of the dead man, but also of his potential father-in-law and his friends, former political prisoners. Gradually, a whole series of people appear whom the ruthless Bubeník hurt in his lifetime...
Inspired by Jaroslav Durych's novel of the same name. The story of an aging man—sick, exhausted, and twisted by life—who arrives in the borderlands shortly after the end of the war, searching for the man who denounced and destroyed his family during the war. He meets a young German woman who has been stripped of her last shred of human dignity by the revolutionary guards. She is alone, without family or children, hiding from people who come to the border region to loot and enforce their self-proclaimed order. The two grow close, but before they even have a chance to tell each other their names, everything tragically...
Prague, Czechoslovakia, during the inter-war period. Jan Dítě, a young and clever waiter who wants to become a millionaire, comes to the conclusion that to achieve his ambitious goal he must be diligent, listen and observe as much as he can, be always discreet and use what he learns to his own advantage; but the turbulent tides of history will continually stand in his way.
Returning to their ancestral lands, descendants of a formerly aristocratic family hunt for mythical creatures that occupy the nearby wilderness.
A TV fairy tale based on a legend from the Haná region. Jan, Margrave of Moravia, falls in love with a simple girl named Marína and marries her. But things start to get complicated at their lavish wedding. The evil fairy Plevelice, in the guise of a beautiful countess, does everything she can to subjugate Jan to her power. His love for Marina fades, and everything is further complicated by war. Marina, who flees the castle to escape her husband's growing anger, gives birth to a boy named Ječmínek. The more she hides with him, the louder the tales of the little heir's goodness and supernatural abilities become. When Jan meets his son, all evil spells disappear, and goodwill and love return to the land of golden fields.
Director's memoirs of his childhood in a lively tenement house, in particular one hot summer day in 1949 when all tenants gathered to celebrate the wedding of the landlord's daughter. Small details slowly reveal that the narrator's recollection of the events may not be altogether correct.
A fairy tale based on Charles Deulin's story about how dancing was forbidden in the castle, yet every morning there was a pile of worn-out shoes in the princesses' chambers. The king had great trouble with his daughters, Princess Maria, Klara, and Lina. They always got up at noon, complaining of headaches and fatigue, looking pale and emaciated. But at night... The secret of the three princesses is revealed by the basket maker Peter. If Peter had not fallen in love with the youngest of the princesses, no one would ever have found out where she and her two sisters spent their nights, and why it was so difficult to wake them up in the morning. Peter is helped by a fairy who, as it turns out, is the princesses' mother.
A fairy tale based on motifs taken from Josephine tales. Like Josef II, the fictitious emperor Maxmilián often disappears from the castle in disguise in order to find out how his vassals live. On one of these 'trips' he meets a drummer returning home from his stint in the army. They live through various adventures together, meeting bandits as well as human foolishness and perfidiousness which almost leads them to the scaffold.
Držgrešle and Drždukát are truly miserly characters. With their cunning, deceit, and eloquence, they could probably swindle a calf from a barren cow. They rob simple villagers and fairy-tale creatures of whatever they can. Just think, they even take away the terrible voice of a terrible robber. In the end, however, they meet their match: the lazy Vojta and his sweetheart Anička come up with a way to rob the greedy brothers of the sack in which they keep all the possessions of those who cross their path.
This production of Ostrava TV Studios was inspired by actual events which occurred in the Ostrava region of Moravia during the 1920s and 1930s. A hedonistic bon vivant of a lawyer named Zajícek (played by Václav Postránecký) came up with a sophisticated finance speculation scheme which exceeded the bounds of law. When discovered it became one of the most closely-followed First Republic scandals.
Television film with Radošino Naive Theatre and its guests.
