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Summary for: This week's guide to English-friendly Czech cinema and streaming🇬🇧 This Week's English-Friendly Screenings
A rogue chicken becomes the unlikely observer of humanity in Hen, a new film by György Pálfi (Taxidermia) that follows its protagonist from an industrial poultry facility through rural Greece. The story, which also touches on migrant trafficking along the coast, blends naturalistic animal perspective with a bleak human narrative.
The Prague Reporter calls it “a story of man through the eyes of an animal” that recalls Au Hasard Balthazar, noting that Pálfi “maintains a bitter, unsentimental approach that lands with unexpected force.” Hen is now playing with English subtitles at Prague's Kino Světozor, Kino Aero, and Edison Filmhub.
- April 20: Czech-Slovak drama Last Routine, a biopic about figure skater Ondrej Nepela, screens with English subtitles at Kino Lucerna and Kino Atlas.
- April 20: Norwegian drama Don't Call Me Mama, which premiered at last year's Karlovy Vary festival, plays with English subtitles at Edison Filmhub.
- April 20: Czech culture clash drama Ungrateful Beings screens with English subtitles at Kino Světozor (also on April 21).
- April 20: Czech-Danish Oscar winner Mr Nobody Against Putin plays with English subtitles at Kino Aero (also on April 22; also at Kino Atlas on April 21, 23, and 25).
- April 20: 2000 Meters to Andriivka, which follows Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines of the war with Russia, screens with English subtitles at Kino Světozor.
- April 22: Sentimental Value, which won this year's Oscar for Best International Feature Film, screens with English subtitles at Bio Oko.
- April 22: F. W. Murnau's classic silent adventure Tabu: A Story of the South Seas screens with live music from Jaro at Edison Filmhub.
- April 23: Scotland's World Porridge Making Championships are the focus of the doc The Golden Spurtle, which premieres at Bio Oko.
- April 24: Jonathan Demme's Something Wild and Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia form an unusual double-feature at Kino Aero.
- April 25: Take off the whole day to see the extended editions of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy at Kino Aero.
🍿 New wide releases
🇨🇿 Czech Cinema Spotlight
The new Czech documentary Resilience (Při zemi) follows two figures in the country’s threatened rural landscape: a conservationist restoring peatlands and protecting plant life, and an investigator tracking the poisoning of birds of prey. What begins as an environmental study gradually unfolds into a quiet but gripping investigation into a suspected serial poisoner.
Blending observational documentary with elements of a crime thriller, the film examines ecological damage and human responsibility within a fragile ecosystem. Resilience screens with English subtitles at Kino Atlas on April 22.
📺 The Streaming Watchlist
- Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan star in season two of Beef, with all eight episodes now streaming on Netflix.
- Mark Wahlberg and Paul Walter Hauser disrupt the World Cup in Brazil in Balls Up, now streaming on Prime Video.
- Elle Fanning is a single mother who finds success on OnlyFans in Margo's Got Money Troubles; the first three episodes are now streaming on Apple TV+.
- Season four of horror-mystery From, with Harold Perrineau, premieres tonight (Monday morning, Prague time) on HBO Max.
- Now streaming on Netflix, David Attenborough narrates A Gorilla Story, detailing his experiences with gorillas since the 1970s.
🎞️ The Throwback
Juraj Herz’s Oil Lamps (Petrolejové lampy), a landmark of Czech psychological cinema, is reaching new international audiences with a new UK Blu-ray release from Second Run. The 1971 drama, starring Iva Janžurová, offers a stark portrait of marriage, desire, and social constraint in the final years of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Widely regarded as one of Herz’s most emotionally exacting works, the film remains notable for its unsparing depiction of repression and disillusion. In Czechia, Oil Lamps is available to stream with English subtitles on KVIFF.TV.
