Reformation: Europe's Holy War

Historian David Starkey tells the story of the Protestant Reformation and how it transformed the face of modern Europe, unleashing fundamentalism, terror and religious violence.

Pfitzner: Palestrina

Requiring 38 soloists, chorus, and large orchestra, Hans Pfitzner's "Palestrina" is a challenging opera to stage. In Munich, the city in which it was premiered in 1917, director Christian Stückle, conductor Simone Young, and the Bavarian State Opera met those challenges with stunning success.

St. Wenceslas

St. Wenceslas (Czech: Svatý Václav) is a 1930 Czechoslovak historical film about Saint Wenceslas.[2] It was the most expensive Czech film to date,[3] with the largest set constructed in Europe to accommodate an all-star cast of over a hundred, together with 1,000 extras for the lavish battle scenes.

Mama Mama Jagoan

Myrna, whose husband just passed away, struggling with depression. She just found her purpose once again when she received a postcard from Monang, her son which ran away from home because of conflicts with his father. Accompanied by two of her best friends, Dayu and Hasnah, Myrna decided to search for Monang in Bali, with the postcard as their only clue of Monang's whereabouts. Once they arrived in Bali, they realized it is not easy to find Monang, they had many unfortunate events which lead them to jail, until they have arguments with each ocher which caused their life-long friendship breaking apart. Will Myrna succeeded to find Monang? How will their friendship stands?

The Life and Death of King John

The reign of England's King John is threatened by Philip of France who demands that John's nephew Arthur be placed on the throne. Pragmatic and decisive, King John moves to plactate the French, but there are others who seek disputre his authority.

Ubalda, All Naked and Warm

During the Middle Ages, a clumsy knight returns home where his wife awaits him. Sensuous and beautiful, she has attracted several male admirers during his absence, but her chastity belt has maintained her faithfulness. Now is her chance to wrest the key from him and enjoy herself. The knight’s portly friend has a similar problem with his equally gorgeous wife. And to top it off, both men have designs on the other’s wife — leading them to devise painful methods to discourage the other from trespassing.

Spanilá jízda

In the Hussite times, religious truth was sifted even on the tips of weapons. When in 1430 the Hussites set out on a raid to Nuremberg, the so-called Spanila Cavalry, to defend their doctrine, the young commander of the cavalry, the landowner Keřský, whose bride had once been kidnapped by a vicious crusader, saw it as an opportunity for personal revenge. Although Oldřich Daněk has tried to establish a distinctive interpretation of historical events, he reflects on where the blinded desire to punish a bad deed with further cruelty leads, but his version seems too thesis-like and lifeless, it does not rise above the descriptively illustrated scenes from old Czech chronicles...

Louis XI, le pouvoir fracassé

Angela Goes On

One woman taxi driver in Bucharest is hoping for a conventional relationship.

Noc bez úsvitu

The Little Hours

Garfagnana, Italy, 1347. The handsome servant Masseto, fleeing from his vindictive master, takes shelter in a nunnery where three young nuns, Sister Alessandra, Sister Ginevra and Sister Fernanda, try unsuccessfully to find out what their purpose in life is, a conundrum that each of them faces in different ways.

1242: Gateway to the West

Batu Khan, Genghis Khan’s military commander grandson, was elected commander in chief of the western part of the Mongol empire. Khan is confronted by a deeply spiritual man named Cesareani and a castle in Hungary that halts his invasion of Europe and ultimately causes his downfall.

Hadrián z Římsů

Blanche

Blanche is the young, pure, beautiful wife of the Master of the castle, in a secluded land. Every man is in love with her, including the King and his servant Bartolomeo, visiting the Master.

Žižka – Hrdlořez i boží bojovník

On October 11, 1424, Hussite commander Jan Žižka breathed his last breath near the castle in Přibyslav. With a little exaggeration, it can be said that he never actually died, as he immediately entered national mythology as the prototype of a brilliant military leader and a true Czech. The revolutionary events then took a slightly different course than he would have liked, but his legacy remained ever-present among the Hussites. To this day, Žižka lives on in our society, with books written and films made about him. But even after 600 years of uninterrupted interest, a significant question mark remains over the Trocnov warrior: What was he really like? A deeply religious warrior of God, or just an ordinary medieval cutthroat? Leading Czech historians, headed by Professor Petr Čornej, are attempting to answer this question.

Mascara

Mascara is the story of three very different women who rediscover the value of their friendship at a time when their lives are in turmoil. Panic sets in as they approach their thirtieth birthdays and nothing is going according to plan.

Jan Žižka

The second part of the revolutionary Hussite trilogy takes place in the years 1419-1420.

A Gun in Each Hand

J. is depressed. E. lives peacefully. S. tries to get back with his wife. G. resorts to anxiolytics. P. plays seduction games. María and Sara exchange their husbands. L. calls his lover in a peculiar way.

Falkenštejn

Gates to Paradise

In 1212, a Children's Crusade is launched after a young shepherd, Jacques de Cloyes, claims to have had a vision in which it is said that the innocence of children would be able to liberate Jerusalem. A monk, returning from Holy Land, joins the crusade and hears the children's confessions, gradually realizing that most of them are taking part not for religious, but for more worldly reasons, like rejected love and hopes for freedom, the true nature of their enthusiasm is homosexual. In fact, if the children follow Jacques, it is more for romantic than religious reasons. They take literally the famous phrase: “Love one another”.