Martin Finger

Anger, emptiness, obsession, escape. This suspenseful thriller set in Czechoslovakia during the 1980s, is considered one of the best Czech films of the last two decades. Antonín, a member of the secret police, is filled with unspoken and unfocused anger and everything around him – both his family and work – depresses and bores him. So he fixes his attentions on an unattainable young woman named Klára and his futile effort to win Klára over pits him against his own people and the system itself. His rebellion is savage, purely personal and - in the pursuit of his goal - self-destructive. However, Antonín’s ruin may carry in itself a kind of a fleeting hope.

After a devastating injury ends her diving career, she must reinvent her life, finding unexpected power and fame as a successful adult film actress.

A fascinating historical drama revolving around the real-life figure of Zdeněk Toman, a Jewish high-ranking official in post-war Czechoslovakia who ran the secret police, helped the communist party to seize power, became a political prisoner, managed to escape to Venezuela and became a financial donor to Israel. Toman is the classic anti-hero - He headed up the state security office yet became the first high-ranking communist official to be jailed and condemned to death in 1949. In spite of that, he managed to help transport Eastern European Jews to safety after World War II before vanishing into exile. Toman was awarded for his activities in the USA and Israel, and was officially rehabilitated after 1989.