Máša Charouzdová

Etudy pro elektronový mikroskop

The second film from in this category, Etudes for the Electron Microscope (20 min., 1988), is is characterized by formal experimentation in both image and sound.

Athletic Variation

Athletic Variations (Atletické variace, 28 min) is a sophisticated essay on winning and losing during the 1982 European Athletics Championships held in Athens.

Variations of a Theme by Gustav Mahler

Documentary short about the title composer, born in what was called "Czechoslovakia" when the film was made.

Etuda o zkoušce

Study of the work of the conductor Václav Neumann and his creative process with the orchestra.

Miracle

This student film by the award-winning Helena Třeštíková bears many of the hallmarks of her later work. Made as a graduation piece when she was at the FAMU Film and TV Academy in Prague, we see the director developing the distinctive observational style of filmmaking that she has used so effectively throughout her career. Over the course of several months, she follows a young pregnant woman as she becomes slowly acquainted with the joys and responsibilities of motherhood.

Respice finem

"A refined film essay about the loneliness, wisdom and humility of old women. The film, most valued by Jan Špáta, was awarded the Grand Prize at the International Short Film Festival in Oberhausen, the Trilobit Award and Special Mention at the IFF in Karlovy Vary."

Carmen Not Only According to Bizet

This is funny or rather crazy adaptation of classical opera Carmen inspired by famous czech theatre Ypsilon play of the same name shot at various bizarre locations such as airport, botanical garden and winter forest.

Reflection

A leading director of the Czech film renaissance provides a philosophical meditation on life and death, set amidst complex hospital apparatus and the sadness, hope, or resignation of the patients. Existentialist rather than optimist, the approach is one of humanistic atheism, accepting death as part of life. Interviews with doctors and nurses explore their outlook; all speak of death as a fact, without either sentimentality or religiosity. The studied objectivity of the film only imperfectly hides an intense emotionality.

Mlha

The work of actors on a stage makes a dreamlike parallelism between artistic immagination and the concreteness of everyday life. Tribute to Prague's Divadlo na zàbradlì, theater that has been a point of reference for Theater of the Absurd in Czechoslovakia in Sixties

Srub

It is the depths of winter and in the middle of a desolate landscape on a snowy slope stands a log cabin, inhabited by an old man. The man puts his last log into his stove and the warmth of the fire visibly delights him. He rocks his rocking chair energetically and sings merrily. The flames die away and the old man looks around for something to put on the fire. In the end he sacrifices the chair, but soon that too is burnt up. The man tears the remnants of posters from the walls, gathers various rags and throws everything into the stove. Then he takes an axe and gradually chops up the wooden walls of his house, although it is obvious that he cannot win this duel with cruel nature. The fire gradually eats up the planks and beams until the cabin entirely collapses. The man wants to get warm, and so runs around the dying flames. (https://www.filmovyprehled.cz/en/film/396670/the-log-cabin)

The Biggest Wish

Sociological study of the real values of young people in socialism.

Mud Covered City

In Malesice, a small city near Prague, the inhabitants' biggest concern is to avoid mud all over around. This humorous film describes the dilemmas concerning rapid urban development in Czechoslovakia in the 1960s. Based on the director's own experience.

Railwaymen

A short documentary about the work of railwaymen and life on the railway.