Josef Abrhám Movies

Despite the 1997 death of longtime friend and Closely Watched Trains collaborator Bohumil Hrabal, 1960s-era Czech New Wave filmmaker Jirí Menzel enters into a postmortem collaboration with the famed author in this pitch-black comedy detailing the shrewd rise of an ambitious waiter. All diminutive manservant Jan Dite (Ivan Barnev) ever wanted was to be filthy rich and to preside over his very own hotel. As a young man coming of age in the 1930s, Jan was preoccupied by beautiful women and awestricken by the fact that anyone, be they rich or poor, would bend to their knees to pick up a coin. With World War II fast approaching and the Germans steadily taking occupation of Czech territory, the opportunistic servant begins his rapid ascent up the hospitality ladder by working for a number of high-profile figures. Though Jan was never a man to settle down with just one woman, his growing attraction to Aryan beauty Liza (Julia Jentsch) soon finds the aspiring hotelier proposing marriage. Of course, a blueblood Teuton like Liza could never wed a man unable to provide proof of his German heritage, but that doesn't stop Jan from doing his best to please her in the bedroom. Later, when Liza is killed retrieving a box of valuable stamps acquired during her stint at the Russian front, Jan uses the valuable collector's items to purchase the very hotel in which he used to work. Unfortunately for Jan, good luck is always followed by bad news, and it's not long before his life's ambition comes crumbling down all around him. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

The horrors of the Jewish Holocaust are revisited in this drama by Czech director Matej Minac. The film opens with the upwardly mobile Silberstein clan led by Jakub (Josef Abrham), as he buys a villa in the countryside just before Hitler overruns the country. His blind faith in family unity ironically keeps a number of his relatives in the country to be victimized by the Nazis. Meanwhile, British humanitarian Nicholas Winton (Rupert Graves) tries to rescue hundreds of Czech children and get them out of the country. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

This rock & roll musical drama from the Czech Republic is set in 1959 and chronicles the rebellious youth of Baby, a guitar-playing rocker wannabe from a working-class neighborhood in Prague. He earns extra money caring for the senile mother of a serious policeman. This does not prevent him from joining up with the officer's daughter and other neighborhood rebels. The adults of the neighborhood are appalled and worried for their children because in 1950s Czechoslovakia, outward rebellion is a crime. Still the young carry on, and music and mayhem ensue. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Steve Soderbergh did a 180 degree turnaround from his debut film sex, lies, and videotape with Kafka, a stark art-film fable for literature majors. Jeremy Irons plays a fictional Franz Kafka, living in Prague in 1919. By day, Kafka works in a massive, impersonal insurance company. At night, he spends his time alone writing stories about men who turn into giant cockroaches. Although quiet and solitary, he becomes a suspect in a murder investigation conducted by Inspector Grubach (Armin Mueller-Stahl) when a friend of his turns up dead. Rather than being harassed by Grubach, Kafka decides to investigate his friend's murder on his own. Kafka speaks to his dead friend's girlfriend, Gabriela (Theresa Russell) and talks with gravestone carver Bizzlebek (Jeroen Krabbe). Kafka follows the clues to the Castle, a menacing tower that casts its shadow over the city and houses files on everything. He winds his way through the cellars and tunnels of the Castle, where he encounters the evil and insidious Dr. Murnau (Ian Holm), whom he hopes holds the solution to the murder. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

In turn-of-the-century Czechoslovakia, two sisters are rivals for an inheritance. One is oblivious to the contest, the other is quite mad but very determined. When the insane one tries to test the poison she means to kill her sister with, she accidentally kills Morgiana, her pet cat. This motivates her to fake a suicide so that she can be put away in a madhouse. However, accidents conspire to make her faked suicide a real one. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this extremely strange Czech film, the grim story is told in reverse. The film literally runs backwards at the beginning as it depicts Mensik's severed head rolling back onto his body during a beheading. The protagonist is then seen walking back into a prison and out the front door. He then finds a suitcase on the sidewalk and brings it to his house. Opening the case, he begins taking out the body parts of a dead woman and reassembles them into the woman he fell in love with. He takes the woman to an oceanside resort where he begins thinking that she has been flirting with a man whom he drowns in the sea. He is unhappy, so Mensik unmarries the protesting girl with the aid of a priest. He next throws the woman into a building that is burning and goes off to find another lover. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

While a woman is in the hospital preparing to deliver her child, her husband has all day to reflect upon his wife and their relationship. As he tends to his job as a television repairman, Slavek fondly remembers how he first met Ivana and the days they spent getting to know one another. Slavek also grows increasingly aware of the environment that surrounds him and questions the society his new child will be entering. Loaded with a repeated plea for social change, this is the first feature from Czech writer/director Jaromil Jires. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide

Originally Transport Z Raje, the Czechoslovakian Transport from Paradise is set in an unusual World War II concentration camp. The lax Nazi guards permit their Jewish prisoners to roam freely about the camp and conduct their own business and social affairs, without the threat of instant extermination looming over their heads. The prisoners' main fear is that they may at any moment be shipped off to one of the death camps. In the film's incredibly heartbreaking climax, a group of prisoners willingly board a train to Auschwitz, laboring under the delusion that they are being sent to another "paradise" camp at the behest of the Council of Jewish Elders. Though it stretches credibility at times, Transport from Paradise is purportedly based on a true story. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide