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Summary for: Czech cinema spotlight: Czech folklore gets a modern twist at BOO film fest🇨🇿 Czech Film in Focus
Czech folklore meets contemporary culture in Volklore, a new short film from director Viktorie Štěpánová that explores how traditional customs and imagery are transformed by social media, fashion and commercial marketing. The film is among more than 100 European shorts presented at this year's BOO International Short Film Festival.
Why watch now: Volklore, which won a Student Academy Award earlier this year, screens with English subtitles at Kino Kavalírka on Nov. 4 as part of the European BOO competition, followed by an English-language discussion with filmmakers. The BOO festival runs Nov. 2–8 at Kino Kavalírka, Kino Ponrepo and other Prague venues. Other Czech highlights include What If We Run Out of Stones? by Nora Štrbová and Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe! by Andrea Szelesová, both screening Nov. 6 in the Czech-German competition.
🎞️ The Throwback
Věra Chytilová's Panelstory, or How a Housing Development Is Born (Panelstory aneb Jak se rodí sídliště) takes an unflinching look at everyday life in socialist Czechoslovakia through the residents of a sprawling Prague housing estate still under construction. Filmed on location in the emerging Jižní Město housing development in the late 1970s, it offers a fascinating portrait of Prague's transformation during the Communist era.
Why watch now: Winner of the Grand Prize at the 1980 San Remo film festival, Panelstory was initially restricted to limited screenings in Czechoslovakia, where its biting criticism of socialist society proved politically uncomfortable. The film screens with English subtitles at Bio Oko on Nov. 3, introduced by Czech rapper and visual artist Vladimir 518, whose recent Czech Radio documentary series explores the architecture and culture of the country's prefabricated housing estates.
🇬🇧 This Week's English-Friendly Screenings
- Nov. 2: Jean-Jacques Beineix's visually extravagant 1986 French romantic drama Betty Blue, starring Béatrice Dalle and Jean-Hugues Anglade, screens with English subtitles at Kino Aero as part of its Legends series.
- Nov. 2: Nicolas Winding Refn presents Her Private Hell, a psychological thriller screening with English subtitles at Edison Filmhub, followed by an online Q&A with the filmmaker.
- Nov. 4: Belgian stop-motion comedy A Town Called Panic, following the surreal adventures of Cowboy, Indian and Horse, screens in an English-friendly version at Kino Aero as part of its Masters of Animation series.
- Nov. 4: Shin Sang-ok's 1958 South Korean crime drama The Flower in Hell screens with English subtitles at Kino Ponrepo as part of a Korean cinema retrospective.
- Nov. 4: Martin McDonagh's new thriller Wild Horse Nine, starring Sam Rockwell and John Malkovich, receives preview screenings at Kino Aero, Kino Světozor and Bio Oko as part of the Tady Vary series.
- Nov. 5: Czech explorers Jiří Hanzelka and Miroslav Zikmund's classic 1952 travel documentary Africa I – From Morocco to Kilimanjaro screens with English subtitles at Kino Ponrepo.
- Nov. 5–12: The Mezipatra Queer Film Festival opens at Kino Lucerna, Světozor, Edison Filmhub and Kino 35, with English-friendly highlights including Gugu's World, Lesbian Space Princess, Extra Geography and a special screening of Czech film Chica Checa with director Šimon Holý.
- Nov. 5: Alejandro Jodorowsky's surreal 1968 debut Fando and Lis, following a couple searching for the mythical city of Tar, screens with English subtitles at Edison Filmhub.
- Nov. 6: Mamoru Oshii's cult 1985 anime fantasy Angel's Egg, following a mysterious young girl protecting an enormous egg in a desolate world, screens with English subtitles at Edison Filmhub.
- Nov. 6: Carol Reed's classic 1947 British thriller Odd Man Out, starring James Mason as a wounded Irish revolutionary on the run from police, screens from a 35mm print at Kino Ponrepo.
- Nov. 6–12: The 13th Aussie & Kiwi Film Fest brings Australian and New Zealand cinema to Kino Lucerna, Edison Filmhub and Kino Ponrepo, with English-language features, short films and a special screening of Maria followed by a director Q&A.
- Nov. 7: Pixar's Oscar-winning Coco, following a young Mexican boy's journey into the Land of the Dead, and the acclaimed stop-motion mockumentary Marcel the Shell with Shoes On screen in English at Kino Aero as part of its Masters of Animation series.
📺 The Streaming Watchlist
- Brian Tyree Henry voices a father confronting outlaws, supernatural threats and deadly machines in Bass X Machina, an animated steampunk Western from creator LeSean Thomas, streaming Nov. 3 on Netflix.
- Jaalen Best portrays legendary boxer Muhammad Ali in The Greatest, the first authorized scripted series about his life, also starring Omari Hardwick, Michael Ealy and Giovanni Ribisi, streaming Nov. 4 on Prime Video.
- Keira Knightley returns as undercover spy Helen Webb alongside Ben Whishaw's assassin Sam in Season 2 of British espionage thriller Black Doves, streaming Nov. 5 on Netflix.
- Jeon Do-yeon, Sul Kyung-gu, Zo In-sung and Cho Yeo-jeong star in Lee Chang-dong's Possible Love, a Venice award-winning drama about two married couples whose lives become entangled during a documentary production, streaming Nov. 6 on Netflix.
- Awkwafina attempts to revive her family's historic Chinese restaurant despite having little culinary experience in Awkwafina: The Unlikely Cook, an eight-part food and travel documentary series streaming Nov. 6 on Apple TV+.
