Josef Vinklar Movies

When the Nazis occupied Czechoslovakia, the first thing to happen was the disaffection of all the Jews in professional positions. No longer able to practice medicine, a Jewish physician begins working in a warehouse, biding his time until the war is over. A fellow tenant appeals to the physician to help a political fugitive who has been shot. Forced into a moral conflict, the physician takes the unselfish road and treats the injured man. Unfortunately, not everyone appreciates the sacrifice he has made and the movie depicts the Catch-22 of doing what you have to do and still suffering for it. ~ Tana Hobart, Rovi

This is an interesting docudrama about four weeks in the life of famous Czech composer Antonin Dvorak, played here with elan by Josef Vinklar. The drama -- filled with many of Dvorak's compositions -- begins when the composer suddenly decides to cut a concert in London and return home. While on the train, flashbacks reveal his relationship to his wife Anna and her sister Josefina (each played by Jana Hlavackova). Both women gave him inspiration, yet Dvorak is clearly troubled in some way as musical excerpts come and go in his creative mind. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

In 1936, Jakub Vilda was a championship professional boxer from Czechoslovakia. He was in Munich, battling his German rival Kurt Schaller, when his manager called off the match. Puzzled and angry, he returned to Prague to train for another match and to find a new manager. When he learns that the Nazis were pressuring his manager to get him to lose, he becomes even more upset. Meanwhile, his old girlfriend has left him for someone else, and he takes up with a German woman who is a popular actress in Czech films. At the time of the rematch, he wins with great difficulty, but he wins. Unfortunately, his new girlfriend was under orders from the German government to cause him to lose, and the results for her are fatal. This drama is directly based on actual events. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

The true story of one of World War One's deadliest air aces comes to the screen in this historical drama. Manfred von Richthofen (Matthias Schweighöfer) becomes fascinated with flying when he's just a boy, and as a young man he joins the German army and becomes part of their budding air force. Flying in a squadron with his best friend, Werner Voss (Til Schweiger), von Richthofen is a pilot with a great talent for aerial battle, but he also has a sense of honor and fair play, and he and his cohorts often pay tribute to fallen opponents by dropping wreaths over the wreckage of their planes. When von Richthofen and Voss discover a Canadian pilot, Capt. Roy Brown (Joseph Fiennes), who has been stranded in German territory, they rescue the flier rather than leave an enemy soldier to die, and while bringing him to safety Manfred meets Käte Otersdorf (Lena Headey), a military nurse who has devoted her life to helping those wounded by war. Manfred becomes deeply infatuated with Käte, but while she is also taken with him, she cannot abide his open embrace of the blood sport of war, and even as he becomes one of Germany's most decorated pilots, downing countless enemy planes, he comes to understand the true horror of war and the consequences of his actions. Von Richthofen gains an even greater perspective on war when he encounters Capt. Brown one last time. Der Rote Baron (aka The Red Baron) was shot in both German- and English-language versions, with the same cast appearing in both. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi