Ladislav Goral

Unemployed and in search of work, a young man gets roped into a series of shady schemes that unite a former band of money launderers.

In an unusual, apolitical approach, director Jaromil Jires has fashioned a standard drama that features an older lawyer with failing health who goes to practice in the countryside. His series of odd court cases reveals more about the human condition than about law. In one of these litigations a wayward nephew has cheated his elderly aunt out of her savings. In court, the nephew insists the money was a gift, but his aunt explains she only gave him the money as a loan. Although the lawyer technically wins the case, everything of value seems lost in the meantime. His services are paid for in rabbits because the aunt has no currency, and in the end, the nephew cons his aunt into parting with her savings anyway. Other cases expose similar types of petty corruption.

Two mismatched lovers struggle to find happiness in an unaccepting society in this drama. Marie is a woman of Romany heritage who works at a hospital in the Czech Republic. Marie wants to quietly assimilate into the culture around her, a notion that offenders her brother Tibor, who is proud of is Romany blood and must often defend himself against insults from his co-workers at a sawmill. One of Tibor's greatest antagonists is Wagan, who is friends with Frantisek, another sawmill employee with a passionate interest in Native American culture. Frantisek meets Marie by chance, and an immediate attraction blooms between them; however, Marie is already engaged to Martin, and Tibor will not hear of her leaving her fiancée for a Czech, especially one who is friends with Wagan. Frantisek discovers Wagan and his other friends are no more accepting of Marie, but their ridicule doesn't change the way he feels about her. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

This downbeat, grim drama about three brothers who are reunited at their mother's funeral is actually visually as dark as its story, making it difficult at times to clearly distinguish a scene. These brothers are not particularly exceptional as people go, but at least they have branched out into separate vocations in their lives. One brother is a doctor, another is a criminal, and the third is a bus driver. Like others in Europe, they suffered through World War II, yet no matter what their backgrounds and experiences, their interpersonal relationships are not exactly gripping drama.

A psychological drama exploring the notion of the doctor as a moral authority, who within the framework of their everyday work must face questions of life and death. The film is adapted from a novel by Valja Stýblová, in which the author draws upon her personal experiences as a former neurosurgeon. The protagonist of this drama is an ageing professor, based at a Prague neurological clinic, who is haunted by issues concerning his own principles and values, and also by the case of a young patient, Víťa, afflicted with an inoperable tumour.

"Why is my son stupid?" laments the poor Roma coal miner. His son Dilino is a nice boy, but he still causes his parents a lot of worry. He hasn't picked up much sense, so he's not much use to the coal family, and he's got all kinds of crazy ideas on top of that. For example, he began to force his unfortunate father to go and ask for the hand of the princess herself for him!