The Island of the Silver Herons

Donizetti's opera as film.

The nurse Helga meets Baltic nobleman Arno when he's wounded in the Russo-Finnish war. They have a short but passionate affair before Arno is called back to the front and dies. Helga has a daughter, Dorli, as a result of the affair and they have to struggle to survive after the Red Army wins the war.

During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), five International Brigade soldiers of different nationalities are given a crucial assignment as their commander lies dying: they are to smuggle top-secret information across enemy lines.

In a small village in West Prussia in the 1870s, Germans, Poles, Gypsies and Jews live together as neighbors. One night Johann, a German mill-owner, secretly opens the dam gates and floods the mill of his Jewish rival Levin. After his business is ruined and his calls for justice go unanswered, Levin leaves town.

A Jewish ghetto in the east of Europe, 1944. By coincidence, Jakob Heym eavesdrops on a German radio broadcast announcing the Soviet Army is making slow by steady progress towards central Europe. In order to keep his companion in misfortune, Mischa, from risking his life for a few potatoes, he tells him what he heard and announces that he is in possession of a radio - in the ghetto a crime punishable by death. It doesn't take long for word of Jakob's secret to spread - suddenly, there is new hope and something to live for - and so Jakob finds himself in the uncomforting position of having to come up with more and more stories.

Lavish adaptation of Wilhelm Hauff′s fairy tale: Young charburner Peter Munk dreams of joining the upper class. He makes a deal with the sinister Holländer-Michel, who offers to trade Peter′s human heart for one made of stone. Once he has the "cold heart" in his body, Peter eventually strikes a fortune and enjoys great wealth, but at the same time, he becomes a bitter and emotionless man – and, having lost all traces of humanity, even murders his wife Lisbeth. Only then does Peter Munk finally realize what has become of him, and he decides to regain his real heart from Holländer-Michel.

Based on a true story of inmates at KZ Buchenwald that risked their lives to hide a small Jewish boy shortly before the liberation of the camp.

Capturing the dark humor of Czech author Michal Viewegh's chronicle of life after the Velvet Revolution, this black comedy chronicles three decades in the life of a small Czech family. While the original novel centered on the protagonist Kvido from his conception through his adulthood, first time director Petr Nikolaev and screenwriter Jan Novak changed the focus to his parents Milena, an extremely self-effacing lawyer who acts on stage in her spare time, and Ales, a rather aimless government worker who tends to drift wherever the wind takes him. The lives of Ales and Milena change dramatically following the Russian invasion of Prague in 1968.

It was supposed to be a cozy Christmas evening with the family. Labor Director Walter Lörke was particularly looking forward to it. But then his daughter Anne surprised him with her future son-in-law Thomas Ostermann. And that's not all: Lörke is to become a grandfather. This doesn't suit him at all, especially as the young man clearly shows his critical attitude towards the state whose ideals Lörke has fought for all his life. An argument ensues - on Christmas Eve. Lörke leaves the apartment in a rage. But he is driven by unrest: He wants to know what kind of person his future son-in-law is and why he has such a negative attitude towards the state. It turns out that Thomas has had bitter experiences with the opportunistic attitudes of many adults and that, although he was the best student in his class, he was not admitted to university because of his critical opinions.

This Czechoslovakian children’s film takes place during the last days of the Austro-Hungarian empire. The young son of a horse trainer loves nothing more than riding his horse, until he is stricken by polio…

The emaciated weavers deliver their homework to the factory owner Dreißiger and receive their wages, on which they cannot live and cannot die. Driven by hunger, they ask for more money, but to no avail. Only the young baker and the reservist Jäger put up a fight, and both manage to encourage a large group of weavers to revolt against the factory owner. They break into his house and destroy it, whereupon he flees. The revolt continues, the weavers move through the surrounding villages, where more people join them. A little later, the military arrives to intervene against the angry crowd and restore the old order...

The 18-year-old construction worker Schultzendorf, known as Schulle, sets off for Berlin from his home town of Ankershagen. He is taken with the Marzahn construction site. He dreams of making archaeological finds there. He searches every excavator load for treasures, which not only earns him ridicule, but also the anger of his colleagues because he delays the work. They try to change his mind and get him a wife. This fails, but Schulle finds one himself - the slightly older Helga, who needs his help to get away from her divorced husband. Once she has succeeded in doing so, she breaks away from Schulle, whose youthful impetuosity unsettles her.

Lena, 17, is restless and desperate. In a few weeks she will finish school, but she doesn't have any definite plans for her future. She wants to make music, that's the only thing she knows. Will she be able to resist the pressure that comes from the people around her - parents, teachers, and society? Will she make her way?

Two 17-year-olds, Werner Holt and Gilbert Wolzow, are pulled out of school and into Hitler's army. Gilbert becomes a fanatical soldier; but at the front, Werner begins to understand the senselessness of war.

A car tells its story and the story of its seven owners during the years of the Third Reich.

A Jewish chief of surgery in 1933 Germany remains blind to the rising Nazi threat, dismissing political dissent from his son and a patient, until his family faces increasing anti-Semitic persecution.

Why? (Czech: Proč?) is a 1987 Czechoslovak drama film directed by Karel Smyczek. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival. The film deals with the hooliganism in Czechoslovakia, particularly with the fans of football club Sparta from Prague, whose supporters were the pioneers of the football fan riots in Czechoslovakia, starting with hooligan actions already in the 1960s, like breaking the trains in which they travelled when they went on Sparta's away games. The film deals with one of such episodes

Magdalena and Michael have loved each other since they were children. But when the Nazis come to power, Michael rebels against the regime and is sentenced to fifteen years in a concentration camp. Magdalena, meanwhile, goes underground with the help of a friend and later immigrates to the Soviet Union. Michael, who has joined the Red Army, discovers on the way to Moscow that Magdalena is staying there. But when his plane lands, she is already on her way back to Germany. Michael hopes that one day, he and Magdalena will be reunited.

The last winter of the Second World War in the Beskids. To escape the bombing, eight-year-old Dagmar is taken by her mother from Prague to a mountain village. From there, they take the narrow-gauge railroad to school...

The Czech film Svítalo All Night was made to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the liberation of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Army and is dedicated to all those who fought and gave their lives in Prague in the May Uprising of 1945. Behind the historical events, the creators see mainly their simple, unassuming participants. Thus, we are presented with a number of apt portraits, whether it is the central hero Dr. Soukup and nurse Daniela on the side of the fighting Czechs, or a captain and a simple private in a Red Army unit coming to the aid of the fighting Prague, or an old, war-weary German major, who only realises the senselessness of the war at the sight of a fanatical, cynical lieutenant for whom Nazi ideology represents the meaning of life.

A story of Pepik, an orphaned boy recently adopted by foster family.

Three friends - Tomás, Hubert and Jozka - are boys growing up in a little town. Tomás lives with his aunt Apolena and uncle Václav. Tomás is a boy with lots of ideas that often end up getting him into trouble not only with his teachers and aunt, but with the other inhabitants of the town as well. He has a crush on his schoolmate Blanka and for her sake he decides to try to get the prize for the best pupil in the school.

A model Communist village is visited by a flying saucer.

Dorota, a bad woman married the miller, out of sheer greed drives him to death. She then took the mill away from his son Peter and threw him out of the hime. Lucifer, who is known to rule in hell, sends out the devil Janek. He is supposed to fetch Dorota because the measure of her earthly sins is overflowing. But the devil himself can not handle this evil woman and flees to the military. There he meets Peter. By joining forces, they finally succeed in transporting the wicked Dorota to hell. Since then hell is hell. But for Peter, who is suddenly in possession of a magic mantle, begins a nice time, because strangely, the prince shows great interest in him.

In the frontier village Vetrov boys from the children's home called Indians lead a bitter "war" with the local Símáks. Before a battle the Indians have a meeting in the sandpit with a smoke signaling. The smoke brings to the sandpit a frontier guard Tomás with a police dog Ranek. The children learn from Tomás that Rank served out and that it shall be destroyed. The nine-year old Fanda writes a letter to the "minister of the frontier guards" in which he asks to let Ranek live. To save Ranek's life he also visits the local frontier guard commander. In the end it is decided that children from the children's home may keep Ranek.

In the 16th century, as Flanders is invaded by the Spanish, Till the Mischievous uses stratagems to enter the service of Ferdinand Alvare de Toledo, Duke of Alba, and from there organize resistance against the invaders.

The king raised two unbearable daughters—Princesses Jája and Anýzka. He no longer knows what to do with them. Perhaps the only solution is to send them to the charming witch Halíbela for re-education! She won't coddle them! But her son Elixír claims that almighty love can change them for the better more than witchcraft. And so he ends up making a bet with Halíbela...

A funny adventures of a two young boys who are trying to rebuild the ship called "Emma" for their friend - the old captain.

Ewald Honig can't break his bad habit. Hardly has he crossed over into the GDR when the strapping, well-built man in his late fifties once again starts courting ladies with fraudulent intentions. His daughter Ina, burdened with the same genes, specializes in married men in their prime. Two criminologists are on the Honigs' trail, but they soon have enough to handle just dealing with each other. Meanwhile, Honig and his daughter have left their wayward path of their own accord.

A young blacksmith, searching for happiness in a series of dreams, realizes that he must find a rejected princess and hold her hand. A fairytale after the Brothers Grimm.

The story of the steel melter Martin Hoff, whose factory delegates him to a drama school, corresponds to the real life of the actor Manfred Krug. Like his (film) hero, Krug works as a steel melter, does artwork, sings and acts, and is sent to drama school. Like his hero, who behaves anarchically and conspicuously, Krug is soon expelled from school.

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.