Radim Cvrček

Just Because You're Grown-Up

Eleven-year old Mísa has the temperament of a proper boy and endless problems with the grown-ups. It is no wonder that he longs to become an adult without further delay. Mísa keeps house together with his father and has various duties. After a failed attempt at dish-washing he goes off to the research institute where his father is working on an important invention. He is trying to produce a substance that would make poultry and other animals bigger and thus help the struggle against famine in the world, but so far he has only managed to produce a shrinking substance. After his father leaves the laboratory, Mísa mixes up different ingredients and makes the growth substance. He drinks it and instantly becomes an adult. His father, conversely, turns into a toddler after drinking the shrinking substance with his beer by mistake.

The Giraffe in the Window

Thieves Svarc and Cihák are interrupted in their robbery of a jeweler's store. In order to disappear as quickly as possible, they jump into the nearest car and leave, finding on the way that a little boy named Jirka, son of the car's owner, is with them. They take him to a cottage where Cihák's eighteen-year old daughter Milena attends to him. Jirka first treats Milena with hostility, but as days pass, the "prisoner" and the "guard" become close. Milena cooks for the boy and takes care of him, but nothing can intimidate the dauntless Jirka and he seeks for the first opportunity to escape.

The Wishing Machine

Two young boys, play hooky from school in order to explore an ultramodern world's fair. They take in the many marvelous scientific and industrial exhibits, obtain literature, eat food, and generally run amok.

The Junk Shop

Juraj Herz adapts Bohumil Hrabal's story about a man who works in a junk shop.

The Pearl Necklace

For nine-year-old Saša, the end of the Second World War is an adventure in which he and young neighbour friend Mařenka compete over who will spot the first Soviet soldier. But the boy causes problems when he lets two German snipers enter a house in which many families are seeking shelter. Fortunately, the inquisitive Saša also comes to the aid of Soviet soldier Váňa, whom one of the neighbours is accusing of stealing a pearl necklace.