Known for Acting
Dr. Štěpán, dismissed for his outspokenness, returns to his hometown determined not to bend his ethical principles to the ruthless new capitalism surrounding him. When he meets a young woman who may become the meaning of his life, he must confront the tension between his ideals and the demands of a changing world.
Kafka, an insurance worker gets embroiled in an underground group after a co-worker is murdered. The underground group is responsible for bombings all over town, attempting to thwart a secret organization that controls the major events in society. He eventually penetrates the secret organization and must confront them.
The subject of this film, which takes an analytical look at the life of all of us with an analytical eye, is the evil microbe that has slowly infiltrated the organism of the Czech nation. Through the intertwining fates of three couples, it evokes domestic life before November 1989, burdened by a suffocating atmosphere of unfreedom, and after November, when relatively nothing has changed because people have not changed. The bleak conclusion suggests that the plague epidemic is still ongoing.
Inseparable friends Štěpán and Kendy are students in their final year of high school. When they are in the principal's office after the trouble with the rather scandalous song "On the Carpet", the school principal gives them the idea of rehearsing a theater performance. They decide on Tyl's Forest Maiden in a rather unconventional version - with music, singing, and several unusual props. While Kendy sees the theater as not only an opportunity to enjoy himself, for Štěpán it is a chance to get closer to the charming Marcela Borůvková. What was originally just a student recession soon starts to get out of hand for both authors, not only because of the quirky cast but also because of information in the press, which is taken care of by the father of one of the classmates. The business is gaining in size, and even a television station is contacted, which shows an interest in making a program about the performance. At that moment, the disaster seems inevitable to Štěpán and Kendy.
The dreaded Italian mafioso, Marian Labuda, will also be convinced. Mafioso Carmello was guilty of the principles of his organization when he tried to fool the boss and earned a death sentence. The convict runs away from the killer through Vienna to Prague, which his Austrian colleague in crime recommended as a safe hiding place. None of them knows that the Czechs learned so much tricks under real socialism that a seasoned Italian professional is not enough to watch.
Arabela was a children's television series produced in Czechoslovakia which aired from 1979 to 1981. The series has 13 episodes and is in the Czech language.
