Once upon a time... there was a country that ceased to exist after a Velvet Revolution, a tiny country of two nations brought together in a socialist utopia, a country with a tradition in film adaptations of folk stories, legends and fairy tales. Initially in the work of animation masters like Jirí Trnka and Karl Zeman, later in live-action films, princesses and fantasy characters were brought to the screen. In “Three Nuts for Cinderella” and “The Cat Who Wore Sunglasses” the fairy tale tradition was given a communist or contemporary makeover. Darker aspects of the fantastic can be found in “The Golden Fern” or the coming-of-age lyricism of “Valerie and Her Week of Wonders”. “Marketa Lazarova” and “Witches' Hammer” on the other hand, are historical parables on authority and terror. Despite an often intriguing ambiguity, these films were not without subtext, especially those produced around the pivotal Prague Spring of 1968. Due to their subliminal critique on the authoritarian government, surrealistic allegories like “Case for a Rookie Hangman” or “Party and the Guests” can be considered as fairy tales for adults.

In collaboration with the Centre tchèque de Bruxelles and the NFA (Národní Filmový Archiv)