6 new Czech films that reveal the country’s changing identity

The box-office and movie programming might well be heavily dominated by Nolan’s The Odyssey, the latest Spider-man film or other blockbusters.

But Czech cinema has long been interested in ordinary lives: family tensions, moral compromises, political shadows, and questions of belonging. This year’s releases continue that tradition, using intimate stories to explore some of the biggest questions facing Czech society today.

We look at half a dozen recent films that are essential viewing for anyone curious about contemporary Czech culture and the important social, moral, and historical issues shaping it.

After premiering at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival last month, where it was nominated for the Crystal Globe, Chica Checa is one of this year’s movie sensations. It is also on the shortlist for Czechia’s submission to the next Oscars.

Directed by young filmmaker and activist Šimon Holý, who didn’t hide the fact the plot was at least partly based on autobiographical elements, Chica Checa follows widowed village postwoman Zdena who, to fulfill her dying mother’s last wish, must try to reconnect with her son Lukáš and bring him back home from his adopted France. Lukáš, however, is living a hidden life as the drag queen Chica Checa.

Ensues a beautiful and heartwarming story of self-discovery where identities unravel, reconnect and reinvent themselves. A beautiful cinematic testament to the power of empathy, a value under growing threat today.

In bouts of nostalgia, Věra misses the sailing trips she used to take with her friends when they were still young, fit and had a whole future ahead of them. Now in their old age, could they still pull it off, and most importantly, will their own children let them?

Director Jan Svěrák’s latest road-movie-type film is a playful comedy on five seniors embarking on a sailing boat trip around the Greek islands.

One of the most successful contemporary Czech filmmakers (Kolya, Dark Blue World) now takes on the topics of old age, forgiveness and how to live life to the fullest with gusto and kindness – venturing into similar territory as his own father Zdenek Svěrák did with Empties back in.

Another highly anticipated debut of 2026, Pramen (in Czech) delves into the real-life mass sterilization of Roma women in communist Czechoslovakia.

A Czech-Slovak-Hungarian coproduction directed by Ivan Ostrochovský, the movie is set in the mid-1980s and follows ambitious doctor Ingrid (played by the one and only Anna Geislerová) who works in a district hospital, oversees baby deliveries alongside the forced sterilization of Romani women. What kind of new outlooking will she gain when she befriends Roma nurse Agáta – with a noteworthy performance by Simona Boledovicova?

An uncompromising look at a dark chapter of Czechoslovak history, whose echoes are still being felt today. Sterilizations continued throughout the 1990s and 2000s, and a recent Czech law has allowed surviving victims of this policy – a “demographic-control program” touching on one of the most intimate aspects of people’s lives – to claim compensation until January 2027. A must-watch of the year.

Also known for Karel, já a ty (2019) and Love Songs (2013), director Bohdan Karásek now gives us Everything as It Should Be, a dialogue-driven relationship drama – heavily influenced by the mumblecore subgenre – that follows doctor and mother-to-be Monika and her fortuitous encounter with her ex-partner.

Supported by the strong performances of Marie Švestková and Jiří Havelka, the film delivers as audiences reckon with the protagonists’ existential questions about their past relationship.

Always, under the surface, the nagging question many have come to confront at one point or another in their romantic lives: what would have happened if they had stayed together with their former love?

When they’re forced to cancel their seaside holiday abroad because of money problems, husband and wife Milan and Týna decide to spend their vacation at home, opting for a campsite in the Bohemian Paradise with varying degrees of enthusiasm.

Frustrations mount; cabin fever soon sets in: no way around an escalating argument that leads to Milan getting lost in the woods and the couple faced with some time apart to figure out the future – if any – of their relationship.

“Despite their deep love for each other, the crushing weight of stereotypes and daily struggles breed frustration and tension,” explained director Adam Koloman Rybanský. “Love slowly transforms into hatred. I’m fascinated by this paradox of partnership, where the one we love most is also the one who can irritate us the most.”

Many of us can undoubtedly relate.

Directed by talented Prague-based Slovenian director Olmo Omerzu, Ungrateful Beings looks at cultural clashes and the struggles of integration in the context of a bicultural family.

David is on holiday on the Adriatic with his two bilingual Czech-English-speaking children, when his 17-year-old daughter falls head over heels for a local boy who happens to be involved in a murder investigation. Back in Prague to deal with the aftermath, David – played by Irish actor Barry Ward – now feels like a foreigner in his own family.

Pulling this thread, the film unravels what it means to belong, and what role languages play in the existence of those living between two (or more) cultural worlds.