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Summary for: Czech cinema spotlight: Wirbel finds haunting beauty in the Sudetenland🇨🇿 Czech Film in Focus
A mysterious landscape, an abandoned house and secrets buried beneath the soil take center stage in Wirbel, a new Czech-Slovak psychological mystery from first-time feature director Tomáš Hubáček. Blending folk horror, supernatural mystery and the history of the Sudetenland, the film creates an unsettling atmosphere through its striking landscapes and haunting soundtrack.
Why watch now: Wirbel is one of the more unusual domestic productions of the autumn. The Prague Reporter praises the film as "an evocative, beautifully realized work that operates more like a cinematic folk tale than a traditional narrative." Kino Pilotů is screening Wirbel with English subtitles throughout Oct. 12–18.
🎞️ The Throwback
František Vláčil's Marketa Lazarová is widely regarded as one of the greatest achievements in Czechoslovak cinema. Set in the brutal world of medieval Bohemia, the 1967 historical epic follows the daughter of a minor nobleman who becomes entangled in a violent conflict between rival clans.
Why watch now: Voted the greatest Czech film of all time in a 1998 poll of Czech film critics and journalists, Marketa Lazarová remains a landmark of European cinema and one of the most ambitious films ever produced in Czechoslovakia. The 160-minute epic screens with English subtitles at Kino Ponrepo on Oct. 18, offering a rare opportunity to experience Vláčil's masterpiece on the big screen.
🇬🇧 This Week's English-Friendly Screenings
- Oct. 13: Croatian historical documentary Fiume o morte!, reconstructing the bizarre occupation of Rijeka by Italian poet Gabriele D'Annunzio, screens with English subtitles at Kino Přítomnost.
- Oct. 13: French director Bruno Dumont's Red Rocks, part of this year's Be2Can festival selection, screens with English subtitles at Edison Filmhub, followed by an online Q&A with the director.
- Oct. 13: Henry Selick's stop-motion fantasy Coraline, about a young girl who discovers a sinister parallel world behind a secret door, plays at Bio Oko.
- Oct. 14: Amir Bar-Lev's 2000 documentary Fighter, following Czech Holocaust survivors Arnošt Lustig and RAF veteran Jan Wiener as they revisit their wartime past, screens in an English-friendly version at Kino Ponrepo.
- Oct. 14: FAMU 80 celebrates the Prague film school's 80th anniversary with eight English-friendly shorts, including Jan Svěrák's Oscar-winning Oil Gobblers and Daria Kashcheeva's Daughter, at Edison Filmhub. The program also screens at Kino Atlas on Oct. 15.
- Oct. 14: Laika's stop-motion adventure The Boxtrolls, following an orphaned boy raised by subterranean creatures, returns to the big screen at Kino Aero.
- Oct. 15: Věra Chytilová's provocative 1988 satire Tainted Horseplay, about three friends whose carefree lives are upended by an HIV diagnosis, screens with English subtitles at Kino Ponrepo.
- Oct. 15: Das Filmfest opens at Kino Lucerna with Marie Kreutzer's Cannes-selected drama Gentle Monster, screening in an English-friendly version with guest editor Ulrike Kofler in attendance.
- Oct. 15: New Slovak-Czech drama Lover, Not a Fighter, directed by Martina Buchelová, screens with English subtitles at Kino Světozor, with additional English-friendly screenings through Oct. 18.
- Oct. 16: Ildikó Enyedi's drama Silent Friend screens with English subtitles at Edison Filmhub as part of Das Filmfest, followed by a Q&A with actor Enzo Brumm.
- Oct. 17: New German drama Karla screens with English subtitles at Edison Filmhub as part of Das Filmfest, followed by a Q&A with guest Lydia Geißler.
- Oct. 17: Lotte Reiniger's pioneering 1926 silhouette-animated fantasy The Adventures of Prince Achmed, one of the oldest surviving animated feature films, screens in an English-friendly presentation at Kino Lucerna as part of Das Filmfest.
🍿 New wide releases
📺 The Streaming Watchlist
- The rise, controversies and personal struggles of former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson are explored through candid interviews in four-part documentary series TYSON, streaming Oct. 13 on Netflix.
- Paul Bettany returns as Marvel's android superhero Vision, who must confront Ultron while searching for his identity in VisionQuest, premiering Oct. 14 on Disney+.
- Keri Russell returns as American ambassador Kate Wyler in Season 4 of The Diplomat, streaming Oct. 15 on Netflix.
- Stanley Tucci plays a legendary thief who recruits his estranged children to steal the Mona Lisa in international heist comedy Masterplan, streaming Oct. 16 on Prime Video.
- Genden Phuntsok stars as pioneering mountaineer Tenzing Norgay alongside Tom Hiddleston as Edmund Hillary and Willem Dafoe as expedition leader John Hunt in Tenzing, streaming Oct. 16 on Apple TV+.
