Success stories

Magical suburban realism: 17-year-old Alkistis spends one last summer at her weekend home in what is a slightly run-down suburban residential area. Her beloved father has died in an accident, her mother isn’t interested in her and her best friend has other things on her mind. Uncertain new beginnings with melancholy in the mind and a beach around the corner.

In the near future, Ukrainian space trucker Andriy Melnyk transports nuclear waste aboard his cargo ship to Jupiter's abandoned moon, Callisto. During a routine flight, the Earth suddenly explodes, but Andriy manages to survive. He becomes the last person in the universe until he receives a call from Catherine, a French woman on a distant space station. Despite the obstacles, Andriy decides to find her.

In the midst of World War II, a boy finds temporary shelter in the home of the legendary Albanian war hero Nuredin Doka after fleeing from fascist persecutors who killed his parents and burned down his village. However, when the same paramilitary unit demands the boy's execution, Nuredin must choose between his own honor and the lives of his family, questioning the brutal difference between personal and collective interests. Nuredin, a Muslim and an Albanian, opens his home to a child of the Christian faith during a time when one's name and nationality were matters of life and death in the Balkans. When Nur runs out of options, he is faced with a choice that will challenge his principles and define his legacy. The question is: what will Nur do?

The older of two brothers joins the prestigious radio editorial team during Prague Spring. Soon, he finds himself in a perilous conflict between the editors and the secret service.

A dreary small town, a loser, an arrogant bully and a woman who would rather go to see her ex in Madrid. Bobka, forever giving his best and yet only making matters worse, has to take over the funeral business after his mother's death. It's not just his talent for putting his foot in it that thwarts his plans but also the good contacts between his biggest competitor and the corrupt hospital director. The only person that can save him financially is an ageing diva who, back in the day, was responsible for his father's senseless death. In a work that makes playful use of cliches about the East, the Italian Western soundtrack, deliberately reminiscent of Ennio Morricone, provides the backdrop to an entertaining small-town Eastern that unfolds before the viewer's eyes.

A single dad orchestrates a sailboat vacation for his twin adult children, secretly planning for them to meet their birth mom.

Restless teenager Horia takes off on his father’s old motorbike in a cross-country journey to reunite with his love. On the road, he is joined by Stela, a sassy 13-year-old, and an unlikely friendship blooms. Horia is about finding one’s free spirit and a sense of self by discovering the world for the first time through an anxious, yet curious teenage gaze. It takes a troublesome journey on a seemingly endless road to make Horia truly savor the moment, and during these difficult times, the director genuinely hopes for this character to inspire viewers to escape into their own, albeit fleeting, inner freedom.

Sanela, a Montenegrin of Muslim origins who left former Yugoslavia in the 90’ right after her father was kidnapped and killed alongside other Muslims, comes back to the Balkans after twenty years spent abroad, where she has betrayed her origins, erased her own culture, becoming a true Westerner. They say that the past is a foreign land and that the one who goes and the one who returns are not the same person anymore.

On their return to the Czech Republic to settle down after years of leading a nomadic lifestyle, 12-year-old Elias and his family encounter a swift string of events that turn their fortunes around. Elias, his dad and his little brother flee, disguised as women. While trying to reach a hospital to be reunited with their mother after her sudden collapse, they meet a colourful variety of locals and hear their dark life stories. Elias doesn’t speak and copes with his overall cynicism through his imagination, but he slowly comes to realise the ideals that his dad lost a long time ago.

Set in Europe during 2038, a female detective investigates the case of a murdered couple where a restoration team is able to bring one of them back to life.

After the death of his grandmother, Relja is faced with the dilemma of organizing her funeral, as his mother, Olga, refuses to do so due to their rocky relationship. Relja, who initially has little interest in the funeral, sees an opportunity to win over his crush Ana, who shows him emotional support during this difficult time. Against his mother's wishes, Relja takes on the task of organizing the funeral, using his wit and cunning to navigate between love and death. Will his risky plan succeed, or will it only make things worse for everyone involved?

Pamfir earns his living by digging wells in villages of the border area between Ukraine and Romania. His wife Helena works in the local veneer factory, their son Nazar, 12 years old, goes to school. Pamfir’s family badly needs money for Nazar’s eye surgery, which is why Pamfir decides to go to Europe to work. He needs to apply for the visa, but the money he earns is not enough for the visa services. Pamfir’s younger brother Viktor lives by helping the local gang with smuggling. Viktor offers Pamfir a quick way to earn the lacking money by smuggling the bootleg cigarettes across the border without the gang, on their own. Pamfir agrees, without knowing that one needs a tremendous physical endurance to take the bootleg across the border, which the gang achieves by using steroids. The steroids have a dangerous aftermath of uncontrolled aggression. Nevertheless, Pamfir decides to do steroids too. The gang finds out about Pamfir’s business. The biggest challenge of Pamfir’s life awaits him.

After the death of her father, young scientist Ana struggles with an identity crisis, being the last member of a once large family. The changes inside her are suddenly reflected in reality - loneliness, crisis, emigration - and her scientific research on mystical symbols and human traces left in stone are mysteriously intertwined with her life until she regains her confidence, moves on and finally stops hiding her vitiligo marks, traces of her traumas.

Hana and Peter have created the world they longed for. They are young, successful and people envy them. They have built a successful company that shall soon provide them for the rest of their lives. Yet somewhere along the way, they got “lost”.  Facing a relationship crisis, they decide to open up their marriage. They are allowed to do whatever they please, on the condition of being honest to one another. They define a new set of rules that on the outside seems like the pure freedom, but internally are slowly destroying them. 

Anna is a 35-year-old single mother, working hard to provide a better future for her daughter Katia. A sudden turn of events makes Anna question her moral compass in a society where everyone has lost their own.

1983. Frank, an angry kid from the streets with "no future". The state banned their music because their words are political. Frank escapes to a psychiatric ward where Hanna, a young enemy of the system, joins him.

Vera is a middle-aged sign language interpreter, whose life is disrupted by her husband's suicide who has to face the raw reality of going against the deep-seated gender issues of our times.

In 1983, communist Poland is shaken by the case of high school student Grzegorz Przemyk, who is beaten to death by police. The only witness of the beating becomes the number one enemy of the state.

Eugene could have gone down the safe path, studied dentistry in Bern, and taken over his father's practice. Instead, he decided to explore his native country, fulfil his dream, and go to Prague to open a music club. But man proposes and God disposes - Eugene suddenly finds himself back on the road to Switzerland, while in his head, he recapitulates the mistakes he made. A tragi-comic mosaic about remorse, the differing values of two cultures, and the hope for reconciliation.

Dark and haunting psychological drama about the collision of modern day faith healers and post-war trauma of survivors in Kosovo.

The owners of apartments of one apartment building gather at a regular meeting. The program consists of several items stirring up a discussion among the owners. The meeting is getting more and more intense and the discussion turns into significant conflicts of the owners, who are defending their personal attitudes and interests with a surprising arduousness. “The duels” of the fighting owners uncover the true nature of the characters and show their motivations. The seemingly trivial story of a meeting turns into an acute statement of the status of our society.

Ludovít has lost his son to a ruthless neo-nazi attack. But, due to a failing in the Slovak legislation, the attackers are soon released and Ludovít is faced with an absurd instance of injustice. He struggles with the apathetic police force, the opportunistic judge, but also with the fact that he was never really close to his own son.

A young au pair meets a radical family community while working abroad and gets lost in the new world presented to her.

Rudina sets off on a long journey with her unmarried pregnant sister, Elma, to meet their strict, traditional father in the Albanian village where they were born. As Rudina’s car makes its way across the mountains, Elma comes up with a plan to enlist an ex-classmate to play the part of her husband.

Jaroslav, a handsome and seemingly good-natured son, father and a decent husband, is, as a matter of fact, pathologically jealous of his wife Blanka. He is very much afraid that one day she would leave him together with their three children. Jaroslav and his family don´t hesitate to employ violence, deceit and terror against others, which ultimately leads to a family tragedy.

City doctor Panos relocates to a remote village in order to offer his services to the community. It’s love at first sight when he sets eyes on Danae, who lives in isolation, with a mysterious
skin condition. Determined to cure her, Panos will soon discover Danae is not the helpless princess he thought she was and time is of the essence for both of them.

Situated in Prague, a 20-year-old Vietnamese named Song, hoped for a better future in Europe. But now in a Vietnamese district in Prague, he is trapped in a marijuana grow house and has the life of a modern slave. Police rounds up the place. Song runs away on the rooftop of a condo building in a nearby district where he breaks down. Mr Rypar lives alone. He is fond of the old times, living in strong opposition to the modern world. Rypar goes up on the roof and meets Song standing on the very edge of the roof crying and the story begins.

Animated docudrama about incredible adventures of one young astronomer, who set up on the road to achieve freedom for his nation.

In 1989 Vandam was used to be called a national hero. Today, he is almost unknown, a loser like many others. His fight for the woman he loves is a fight for his dignity, and it will be his downfall.

Seventeen-year-old Iva is in the process of coming to terms with the death of her mother. Influenced by this deep personal loss and by the discovery that she didn’t know everything about her mom, the girl slowly immerses herself into a strange, almost dreamlike world far from reality.

Alongside a surly veteran detective, an idealistic police officer must investigate a murder that reopens old wounds for her Vietnamese community.

Jarka lives with a mother who is not yet ready to be a mom, and spends most of her time alone. Pushed by her desire for love and to form a fully functional family, she finds herself substituting a "mother" to two babies.

The film is an odyssey of 50-year-old Ágoston, the head of the family, who sets out on a journey through Eastern Europe with the hope of getting a job and fulfilling his dream of catching a big fish. He ends up in the Baltics with empty pockets, leaving only sea salt and wind behind his collar. During his journey, he gets into more and more bizarre situations.

Hedvika is struggling with the lack of maternal affection towards her newborn daughter. When she one night finds the diaries of her late father from the time of her own childhood, she decides to try to overcome the absence of closeness by reading them and by visiting the places she used to know as a child. The film is an intimate psychological drama taking place at the end of one hot summer.

Lena is seventeen years old and is on the threshold of entering adult life, but her growing up is brutally interrupted by a horrific event. Devastated, she goes into her shell and is scared to share her experience with others.

A young boy Zawana enters a small village monastery led by U Dahma. Zawana has doubts if this lifestyle is right for him, but he grows to like the old abbot. The monastery faces financial crisis, monks are leaving, and on top of that U Dahma gets sick. Somebody must take care of him and the whole community. Zawana understands that he has to take the challenge...

Vašek learns that he is dying, so he steals a painting and goes to Rome to sell it – he needs money for a healer. Sitting on a train with a fake moustache on his face, he has no idea that he has, in fact, been sent on a spiritual quest of his life by a beautiful girl. His pursuers look as if they were transported from a 1970’s movie, yet his attention is constantly drawn to the other passengers, who pull him into their own stories with no mercy.

A mentally handicapped young man decides to leave the security of his family in order to search the purpose of his existence; whether it is freedom, sexual experience or death.

There was house in a cave under little hill and that was a place where Little Man lived. He was quite well there until one night - when he had a mysterious dream. He dreamed about a house with provoking sign above its door: "YOU WILL FIND HERE WHAT YOU MISS". He had to go for a dangerous journey to find out what he was missing. He had to complete many difficult quests, overcome his fears and above all, keep moving forward no matter what was happening to him! And did he finally reached the place he searched for? And what did he find there?

A family has decided to sell their lovely cottage as none of them has visited it for some time. Yet it holds so many nostalgic memories that the mother suggests they all spend one last day there before the sale takes place.

Schmitke is an old German wind turbine engineer. One day, he is dispatched to the Czech side of the Ore Mountains to fix an old squeaking wind turbine. His colleague disappears and mysterious things begin to happen in the forest.

The story follows the background of a political campaign of a presidential candidate. There are two months remaining to the elections. Adam Lambert, a successful and influential owner of an advertising agency, gets a job - to create a political campaign for a peculiar candidate - an indistinctive small-town entrepreneur. The goal is simply to stir the political waters and strip the opposite party of a few votes. Lambert is used to manipulating people without a blink of an eye and always gets what he wants. However, during a dinner party, he is provoked into a bet against his rival - Ivan Muller, who works for the heaviest favourite of the elections. The stake is approximately 7 million euros. Lambert bets all his fortune on a single horse, the unknown candidate. He swears he will transform this loser into a president, and that he will accomplish that no later than in the first round of the elections.

Szabolcs quits football against his father's will and returns to his country in Hungary to take charge of an inheritance from his grandfather. There, he meets Aron and they both explore their identities.