Buttoners | Knoflikari
Petr Zelenka, 1998, 104', subtitles

London 20 April
Brighton 28 April
Bradford 1 May
Nottingham 5 May
Edinburgh 14 and 15 May
Glasgow 17 May
Norwich 22 May

A black comedy about ordinary people who bargain with fate at the end of the 20th century. Itis a funny film about spitting on trains, bad weather, the atom bomb, shooting human sperm into space, infidelity and people who have killed other people. A kaleidoscope of eccentric characters makes up a picture of a cruel world where everything is connected with everything else and events seem to repeat themselves.
Awarded at the Rotterdam and Bergam Film Festivals.

Prague Stories | Praha ocima
Artemio Benki, Michaela Pavlatova, Martin Sulik, Vladimir Michalek, 1999, 78', subtitles

London 22 April
Brighton 5 May
Oxford 9 May
Bradford 14 May
Nottingham 19 May
Cambridge 22 May
Edinburgh 25 May
Glasgow 26 May
Stoke-On-Trent 30 May

Prague Stories, inspired by New York Stories and the famous Paris vu par, is a movie about human relationships in contemporary Prague seen from the perspective of four distinctive directors. We meet a successful Czech journalist looking for the meaning of life and wavering between his pregnant wife and his colleagues; former lovers who re-enact a love affair; a mother and daughter coming to terms with each other and the death of the old and birth of a new love affair. Love tangles, tragicomic communication problems and the uneasy overcoming of alienation are the common themes of the individual episodes where the city is almost like another character.

Loners | Samotari
David Ondricek, 2000, 95', subtitles

London 20 April
Brighton 24 April
Bristol 4 May
Bradford 8 May
Nottingham 12 May
Norwich 14 May
Glasgow 19 May
Edinburgh 21 and 22 May
Stoke-On-Trent 28 May

Seven Prague-based characters looking for love find themselves in this off-beat engaging tragicomedy. A very fresh and spontaneous film full of dreamlike absurdity enhanced by the haze of marijuana. Zelenka's witty script exploiting and linking situations similar to those in Buttoners (watch out for the Japanese encounter with Czech family life!) is supported by highly stylistic music and Ondicekis distinctive visual style. Definitively a winner with the younger generation, Loners belongs fully to the contemporary trend of European independent cinema.

Angel Exit | Andel Exit
Vladimir Michalek, 2000, 100', subtitles

London 23 April
Brighton 1 May
Bristol 5 May
Norwich 11 May
Cambridge 16 May
Oxford 19 May
Bradford 23 May
Glasgow 28 May

Mikes, who lives in a district around Angel Station in Prague, falls in love with his new neighbour Jana. Their happiness is soon interrupted by the arrival of Mikesis friends from the past who drag him back to his drug fuelled former life. With them he sets off on a magical trip to South Africa which turns into a nightmare. Mikes soon has to face some serious choices: between two very different women and between finding a new way of living or artificial elation. This wild and chaotic story about young people on the edge based on a book by the young writer Jachym Topol offers a portrait of the darker and lesser known side of Prague. A visually stunning piece of filmmaking.

Late Night Talks with Mother | Nocni hovory s matkou
Jan Nemec, 2001, 69', subtitles

London 23 April
Brighton 5 May
Cambridge 12 May
Oxford 14 May
Bradford 21 May
Edinburgh 25 May
Glasgow 29 May

A stylized semi-autobiographical work by Jan Nemec, the leading Czech New Wave director. Based on an imaginary dialogue with his mother, this is a counterpart to Kafkais A Letter to His Father. It takes place in Prague along the tram route linking the St Wenceslas statue with the crematory, and is interspersed with major events in Czech history - WWII, the Soviet Invasion, the Velvet Revolution - and other events from Nemecis life. With a star-studded cast including President Vaclav Havel, Eric Clapton, Marta Kubisova, Saul Zaents and Ester Krumbachova, this is a film full of originality and poetry.
Awarded the main prize in the video competition at the Locarno Film Festival 2001.