Ladislav Mňačko

Rochade

At the centre of Peter Patzak's existentialist film noir stands the hopeless struggle against the arms mafia in Czechoslovakia and its connections with Austria after the fall of the iron curtain.

Festspiele

Television film

Das einsame Haus

A young and an old man meet in a lonely, remote house. Who is who? What about the body that is on the first floor? Both distrust each other. A tough duel begins between them that ends fatally ...

Der Leuchtturm

A psychological and existential study of a prisoner charged with guarding an isolated lighthouse. If he makes it through two years, the remainder of his sentence for manslaughter in a bar brawl will be pardoned. Nobody before managed to cope with the solitude. One day, a rat makes its way to the island. The sea and the island, the man and the rat, friendship and vendetta.

Man in a Great Hall

An artistic documentary based on a report of the same name from Ladislav Mňaček's book Where Dirt Roads End. A psychological reflection on the feelings of an individual who operates like a modern, fully automated control room of a large hydroelectric power plant. His subjective ideas intertwine with the environment of the workplace, accompanied by the music of J. S. Bach.

Death Is Called Engelchen

Pavel is a Czech partisan fighter in the waning days of the war. Just as peace is declared, Pavel is shot in the spine and sent to the hospital emergency ward. As he fades in and out of consciousness, he recalls the events that led to his participation in the underground. Holding German occupation commander Engelchen responsible for all the horrors and deprivations heaped upon his comrades, Pavel is kept alive by the possibility of recovering and exacting vengeance upon the Nazi officer - no matter how long it takes.