Best Czech drama movies

The Painted Bird (2019)

After losing his parents, a young Jewish boy wanders Eastern Europe, seeking refuge during World War II.

The Butcher of Prague (2011)

Czechoslovakia, 1941. As the war continues, Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich arrives in Nazi-occupied Prague and establishes a regime of terror that will force freedom fighters to act. But the price to pay will be too high.

Broken Promise (2009)

Slovakia, on the eve of the outbreak of World War II. The family of the young Jewish Martin Friedmann gathers to celebrate his bar mitzvah and make a solemn promise that they will all meet again a year later around the same table; but the storms of war and anti-Semitic fanaticism will lead each of them down very different paths.

Waves (2024)

At the end of the 1960s, when the air is filled with rock-and-roll and student rebellions are changing the world, the older of two brothers joins a prestigious newsroom of the public radio broadcaster. Not long after, he finds himself in the middle of a dangerous conflict between journalists and the secret service.

Amnesty (2019)

Inspired by true events of the 1989 Czech and Slovak Velvet Revolution and Václav Havel's controversial release of 23000 prisoners. In addition to the story of three families affected by communist persecution, the film Amnesty also deals with the uprising of prisoners in Leopoldov, which required military intervention. The uprising was preceded by a broad amnesty granted by Václav Havel in January 1990, just a few days after his election as Czechoslovak president.

#annaismissing (2023)

Anna is a controversial influencer and best known for her provocative online content, but suddenly she goes silent on her social media profiles and mysteriously stops posting any updates. When 15-year-old Nina finds a half-naked photo of Anna on her dad's phone, she decides to track down the missing influencer.

The Hastrman (2018)

A strange nobleman returning after years abroad to a small Bohemian village in the beginning of 19th century. The nobleman feels closer to animals despite looking like a human.

Innocence (2011)

The fall from the top to the absolute bottom can be very fast. A renowned physician, also a beloved father and husband, is accused of a serious felony. Innocence is hard to prove, especially when in desperation to try to save oneself, we sacrifice the secrets that should have remained hidden forever.

Miracle (2022)

A young novice sneaks out of her convent to deal with a matter that cannot be delayed.

The Prague Orgy (2019)

In 1976 a famous American writer Nathan Zuckerman is challenged by Czech immigrant Sisovsky who implores him to retrieve valuable manuscripts from communist Czechoslovakia. The writer accepts this dangerous mission, where his every step is observed by secret police. Once in Prague, he meets Sisovsky‘s flamboyant and wild ex-wife Olga who is in possession of the manuscripts. The evolving relationship between the hot-headed Olga and Nathan is a confrontation between two worlds - the repressed East and free West. But, Olga won‘t give up the manuscripts to Nathan so easily…

Vendeta (2011)

Walking Too Fast (2010)

The psyche of a ruthless secret agent in Cold War Czechoslovakia begins to unravel when he obsesses over the girlfriend of a suspected subversive he is tracking. This taut political thriller is a bleak and potent rendering of the emotional destruction wreaked by totalitarianism.

Tower. A Bright Day. (2018)

Mula lives with her husband, sick mother and daughter Nina in a countryside house. At the weekend before Nina’s First Holy Communion, her brother with his family come for a visit together with Kaja – Mula’s younger sister, who disappeared suddenly 6 years earlier. Kaja is Nina’s biological mother. Mula is afraid that unstable Kaja might want to take her daughter away.

The Devil's Mistress (2016)

Salzburg, Germany, 2000. The elderly Czech actress Lída Baarová tells a journalist the tumultuous story of her rise to fame in 1930s Berlin and her passionate relationship with the sinister Joseph Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda of the Third Reich.

Emma in Love (2021)

Passionate Emma and impulsive but introverted Tomáš fall in love. They are like two missing puzzle pieces coming together. But Emma's pornographic past inevitably catches up with them.

Moments (2018)

In a series of vignettes, a young woman ponders her role in life as she navigates expectations, barriers, and challenges with her loved ones.

The Country Teacher (2008)

A gifted and well-qualified young teacher takes a job teaching natural sciences at a grammar school in the country. Here he makes the acquaintance of a woman and her troubled 17-year old son. The teacher has no romantic interest in the woman but they quickly form a strong friendship, each recognizing the other's uncertainties, hopes and longing for love.

My Story (2019)

Young talented Elizabeth leaves a successful career in ballet for love. The man who has stolen her heart, however, has a dark side, and in a single moment Elizabeth loses everything dear to her in life.

The Ride (1994)

Two guys bought a car and travelled through the country untill they met a lonely girl on the road. So they begin to travel together having so much fun. And there is another guy who has a better car and who is looking for the girl because he is her lover, he is her first one. What is going on inside of this girl? Nobody knows, until the end.

The Idiot Returns (1999)

Frantisek, the main character is returning to his family. Until now he's been, "successfully" avoiding all relationships. He is an ingenuous and a pure person and thus, is regarded as an idiot. He becomes involved in various love and family conflicts. It is because he hasn't experienced much of the "real" life that he is able to perceive human relationships in their genuineness.

Forever Unfaithfully Yours (2018)

Josef and Miluška have been married for what seems like forever. Miluška teaches areobic and cares for her husband and teenage daughter tirelessly. Josef loves his wife, but has a weakness for younger more beautiful women. Their marriage, along with Josef's bankrupt publishing company, is slowly crumbling until aunt Marta - an experienced marital counsellor - comes to the rescue. She has a bold plan to fix not only their marriage, but also Josef’s publishing company. The prescription? Infidelity! They must catch each other out in flagranti.

The Self Lover (2013)

Libuse is a divorcee who owns a dog hotel and would much rather spend her time with her dogs than stepping back into the dating pool.

3 Seasons in Hell (2009)

A 19 year old nonconformist poet living in 1947 Czechoslovakia is blind to the Communist behemoth looking over him, and instead lives a bohemian life with sexually liberated girls.

The Bohemian (2022)

The year is 1764. For over a year, Josef has been leading a precarious life in Venice. He hopes to become an opera composer. The city, full of talented and already-established composers, seems closed to him. Looking for work as a violinist, he comes into the orbit of a rich young woman. Thanks to her, he gets the opportunity to play at salons. But his real opportunity arises when he becomes the lover of a libertine marquise. She teaches him worldly manners, rids him of signs of a provincial upbringing and introduces him to a hedonistic existence free from religious intolerance. Thus transformed, Josef gets an incan incredible commission: to write an opera for the San Carlo, Europe's largest theatre.

Wild Flowers (2000)

Seven seemingly unconnected fairy tales - glued together only by folklore, mood, color and light - make up this Czech collection of visual poetry. The original piece of literature, written by Karel Jaromír Erben in 1853, contained twelve tales.

I, Olga Hepnarova (2016)

Olga is a complex young woman desperate to break free from her unfeeling family and social conventions. With her Louise Brooks-like tomboyish looks she drags herself, chain-smoking, from one job to another until she appears to find her niche as a truck driver. Although she has female lovers she does not form a bond with any of them; instead she clashes, time and again, venting herself in wordless emotional outbursts and other behavioural extremes.

A Prominent Patient (2017)

In 1939, Czech diplomat Jan Masaryk flees to the United States to escape his recent past: Germany has invaded Czechoslovakia and he is now a man with no nation; because, as the Czechoslovak ambassador in London, he failed to win the support of the British and could not avert the fall of his country and the outbreak of the World War II.

Toman (2018)

This fascinating historical drama looks at the life of "the Czech Schindler," Zdenek Toman, a controversial figure who was an unsavory politician and dubious entrepreneur, but also the savior of hundreds of Eastern European Jews.

The Last Race (2022)

The Confidant (2012)

New husband Adam reluctantly takes a job with state security in a totalitarian country, thus becoming a secret police agent. This "contract with the devil" helps secure a flat for the happy couple, as well as a prosperous future. However, he soon finds out that he too is under surveillance.