Agnieszka Holland

The Oscar entry for the Czech Republic. Few true stories tread the thin line between good and evil as precariously as that of Jan Mikolášek, a 20th century Czech herbal healer whose great success masked the grimmest of secrets. Mikolášek won fame and fortune treating celebrities of the interwar, Nazi, and Communist eras with his uncanny knack for “urinary diagnosis”. But his passion for healing welled up from the same source as a lust for...

1933. Hitler rises to power and Stalin’s Soviet propaganda machine pushes their “utopia” to the Western world. Meanwhile an ambitious young journalist, Gareth Jones travels to Moscow to uncover the truth behind the propaganda, but then gets a tip that could expose an international conspiracy, one that could cost him and his informant their lives. Jones goes on a life-or-death journey to uncover the truth behind the façade that would later...

On the 16th of January 1969 on Wenceslas Square in Prague, a young student sets himself on fire in front of dozens of passers-by. Police Major Jireš investigates the circumstances of Palach’s actions. His instructions are to stop any other “human torches.” The news of Palach’s self-burning quickly spreads among his colleagues – students at the Charles University’s Faculty of Arts. One of them is Ondřej Trávníček, who is a radical...

Eight months after Palach’s death, the trial of Vilém Nový, represented by the arrogant, selfassured attorney Sýkora, finally begins. Palach’s mother, during an important private conversation with Nový, is shocked by how pontifical he is. Dr. Burešová’s husband, pediatrician Radim Bureš, faces escalating problems at work due to the StB’s pressure. After several incidents of bullying he is fired from the hospital and ends up a general...

Little Princess: Sara Crewe, the pampered daughter of an Army officer, is left in a strict boarding school when her father goes off to war. When he is reported dead, her world is turned upside down and she is made a servant at the school, yet she refuses to let her spirit be broken. The Secret Garden: A young orphan named Mary is sent to live at the dark and foreboding English estate of her widowed uncle. She discovers a secret garden which was abandoned...

When young Anna Holz, a Viennese music student is asked to transcribe scoring notes for the great Ludwig van Beethoven, she eagerly accepts. She does so despite the warnings about Beethoven's volatile behavior. Beethoven is part maestro, part mentor and part madman. He recluctantly relies on Anna to help him realize the culmination of his art.

Janina Duszejko, an elderly woman, lives alone in the Klodzko Valley where a series of mysterious crimes are committed. Duszejko is convinced that she knows who or what is the murderer, but nobody believes her. Based on Olga Tokarczuk's (Nobel Prize Winner) novel 'Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead.'