Josef Mathauser

The Gambler

This lavish Soviet/Czech co-production is based on Fyodor Dostoyevsky's famous novel, The Gambler, which tells the story of a Russian living in Germany, in a gambling resort. This film is set at the turn of the century, and was filmed in Karlovy Vary (Carlsbad), Czechoslovakia. Played by Nikolai Burlyayev, the gambler succumbs completely to his addiction, using up every resource he has (human, spiritual and financial) in his wagering, finally becoming a rootless drifter.

The Key

Jan Zika is the legendary hero of the communist resistance movement during World War II and leading functionary of the second underground Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.

A Report on the Party and the Guests

A picnic is rudely transformed into a lesson in political hierarchy when a handful of mysterious authority figures show up.

The Borrowed Face

It is the 1930s. Physician Bartos devotedly attends poor patients in the city suburbs, at the same time researching the possibilities of regeneration of human tissues after transplantation. His former colleague Rosen, now working as an assistant at the private clinic of surgeon Kirchenbruch, considers the research a mere utopia. The disappointed Bartos, trying to verify his theories, therefore accepts the outrageous proposal of Marion, owner of a brothel - to surgically replace the face of her lover, the wanted thief Cutter, with the face of murdered Father Hopsasa. Bartos is well paid but his successful operation remains a secret.

Za pět minut sedm

A modern fairy tale that takes place in the present.

Mstitel

Kaspar Len returns home after three years in the army. He vainly searches for the mason Kryštof’s family where he had lived before he left. All he finds out is that Kryštof’s daughter Márynka, who was in his thoughts all those years, is now working in the local brothel. He goes to visit her and Márynka tells him of the misfortunes which befell her family.

Nevěra

Based on book by Svatopluk Turek.

Shoesmachine

The happenings in a shoe factory serve as a not very thinly veiled examination of the pros and cons of both socialism and democracy.