Reading time: 3 minutes 
Summary for: Czech cinema spotlight: Prague screens mark Václav Havel’s 90th birthday🇨🇿 Czech Film in Focus
Václav Havel would have turned 90 on Oct. 5, and Prague cinemas are marking the occasion with a trio of English-friendly films offering different perspectives on the playwright, dissident and former Czech president.
Citizen Havel (Občan Havel), Pavel Koutecký and Miroslav Janek’s candid documentary assembled from more than a decade of behind-the-scenes footage of Havel during his presidency, screens with English subtitles at Bio Oko on Oct. 5.
Also on Oct. 5, Kino Atlas screens Petr Jančárek’s Havel Speaking, Can You Hear Me?. The 2023 documentary follows Havel during the final years of his life, drawing on footage filmed between 2009 and 2011. The English-subtitled screening will be introduced by Jančárek and followed by a discussion.
Leaving, Havel’s sole feature as a film director, is an absurdist tragicomedy starring Josef Abrhám as a former chancellor struggling to relinquish power and privilege; it screens from a 35mm print with English subtitles later this week at Kino Ponrepo on Oct. 11.
🎬 New in Cinemas: NAZA
One of the year’s most controversial documentaries arrives in Prague this week. NAZA, from Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, examines Israel’s military campaign in Gaza through anonymous testimony from former Israeli military and intelligence personnel, including accounts of AI-assisted targeting and the calculation of acceptable civilian casualties.
The film has generated intense debate since its festival debut, with its recent New York Film Festival premiere drawing protests and heightened security. The IDF has rejected the documentary’s allegations, saying its anonymous testimony cannot be adequately verified and accusing the filmmakers of presenting a misleading account of Israeli targeting procedures.
Why watch now: After attracting international attention and controversy, NAZA opens in Czech cinemas on Oct. 9. Prague audiences can see it with English subtitles at Bio Oko on Oct. 9 and Kino Lucerna on Oct. 10, with further screenings at Kino Přítomnost and Kino Světozor on Oct. 11 and into the following week.
🇬🇧 This Week's English-Friendly Screenings
- Oct. 6: Protagonista: Reporter Targeted by the Drug Mafia, following an investigative journalist confronting organized crime, screens at Bio Oko followed by a post-film discussion.
- Oct. 7–11: The 13th Be2Can festival brings highlights from Berlin, Cannes and Venice to Prague, with English-subtitled screenings at Edison Filmhub including Minotaur, No Good Men, Her Private Hell, Red Rocks, The Golden Age and Memory of Princess Mumbi.
- Oct. 7: Queen’s historic 1986 concert behind the Iron Curtain returns to the big screen in Queen Budapest, playing at Kino Světozor.
- Oct. 8: Edward Yang’s 1986 Taiwanese New Wave classic The Terrorizers, charting the intersecting lives of several Taipei residents, screens with English subtitles at Kino Ponrepo.
- Oct. 8: KineDok presents its annual FEINKOŠT selection of short documentaries from Central and Eastern Europe at Bio Oko, with an English-friendly presentation and post-screening discussion.
- Oct. 9: Richard Kelly’s cult 2001 sci-fi mystery Donnie Darko, starring Jake Gyllenhaal as a troubled teenager plagued by visions of an apocalyptic future, screens at Bio Oko.
- Oct. 9: Turkish director Emin Alper’s Salvation, part of this year’s Be2Can selection, screens with English subtitles at Edison Filmhub, followed by a Q&A with Pelin Ayan Musil.
- Oct. 10: Helena Třeštíková’s new time-lapse documentary Bára Basiková, tracing five decades in the life of the Czech singer, screens with English subtitles at Kino Lucerna.
- Oct. 10: Karel Kachyňa’s The Ear (Ucho), the famously banned 1969 political thriller about a Communist official who suspects his home is under surveillance, screens with English subtitles at Kino Ponrepo.
- Oct. 11: Bérenger Thouin’s The Golden Age, an ambitious French-Italian historical drama blending fiction with restored archival footage, screens with English subtitles at Edison Filmhub, followed by a Q&A.
📺 The Streaming Watchlist
- Bob Saget and Neil Berkeley profile the late comedian, musician, actor and painter Martin Mull through archival footage and interviews with Steve Martin, Tom Waits and others in Who Is Martin Mull?, streaming Oct. 7 on Netflix.
- A fisherman battles a mysterious sea creature threatening his coastal community in supernatural thriller Below, streaming Oct. 8 on Netflix.
- Ben Affleck directs and stars opposite Kerry Washington in Animals, about an LA mayoral candidate forced into desperate measures after his son is kidnapped, streaming Oct. 9 on Netflix.
- John Cena leads a group of childhood friends into an international conspiracy in Sam Hargrave’s action adventure Matchbox: The Movie, also starring Jessica Biel, Danai Gurira and Sam Richardson and streaming Oct. 9 on Apple TV+.
- Eliza Coupe returns as Katherine alongside her eccentric family and resident ghosts in Season 2 of animated supernatural comedy Haunted Hotel, streaming Oct. 9 on Netflix.
