Sokol Spirit’s 3rd Friday - CZECH FILM SERIES

PRESENTING OUR EDUCATIONAL LINE-UP OF CZECH FILM CLASSES

(English Subtitles) on the 3^rd Friday of the Month.  The Czech films start at 7pm in our Czech classroom upstairs and with donation of $5 you get a free pilsner, pop, or water. Our Czech language instructor will be introducing you to all the film background and will be there to answer questions. This is our 11^th season!                                                                                                   

MARK YOUR CALENDARS NOW!!!!!

2025

September 19 MEDIEVAL; 2022;125 Minutes; Color; American film; Rating R for Violence. It is about the life of Jan Žižka, a Bohemian military commander who never lost a battle. The film is set prior to the Hussite Wars (1419–1434), when Žižka was young. It tells the story of how Žižka became a famous military commander.  In the 14th century, Wenceslas IV from the House of Luxembourg is the king of Bohemia, King of Germany and Roman emperor at the same time. Wenceslas has received the throne after his father Charles IV, but his reign is not as successful, and the kingdom seems to fall apart under his weak rule. The country is actually ruled by Henry III of Rosenberg, the most powerful nobleman in the country. Of note is the filming all occurring in central/southern Bohemian and with Academy Award winner Michael Caine as one of the many historical characters. Also of note is that the American army notes many of  Žižka’s military inventions and moves in their educational classes today.

October 17 THE GIRL ON THE BROOMSTICK/ Dívka na koštěti ; 1972; 80 Minutes; Color; English subtitles; Rating G. Saxana is a young witch who is just learning her craft at a witch school. When one day he stays after school for 300 years, he uses the Lexicon of Spells to transport herself to the human world for 44 hours, where she wreaks havoc with his variously successful spells. Gradually, she falls in love with Honza, which is why she does not want to return to the fairytale realm. Only drinking the decoction from the grandmother's ear, which she diligently searches for, can save her from returning. He doesn't know that the lady's ear actually means sagebrush , and is looking for an actual human lady's ear. Slavic School of Magic, is a school founded by the pure-blood Ivan Vorobyov in 1567. From the American Sokol Lending Library.

November 21 (JOHN AMOS) COMENIUS-Life and Legacy / (Jan Amos) KOMENSKÝ; 2021; 96 Minutes; Color; English & English Subtitles; Rating: PG. The story starts as the Dutch artist, Rembrandt paints his picture.  John was a bishop of the Brethen Church, scholar, linguist, and reformer of education.  He became an orphan as a young boy and then lived with his uncle and aunt in Straznice until they were killed when the Boesky soldiers invaded the town.  He married three times and had six children but rarely spent time with them because he was devoted to his teaching and books.  He didn’t agree with the way the teachers used physical punishment and introduced the idea that a picture could help when reading a story.  He wrote over 200 treatises and books.  From the American Sokol Lending Library.

2026

February 20 WHEN A DRAGON GETS A HEADACHE / KDYZ DRAKA BOLI HLAVA; 2018; 98 Minutes; Color; English Subtitles; Rating: G. Barborka and Tomik spend holidays with their grandparents in a blacksmith’s workshop under a Dragon rock. A small two-headed dragon Cmoudik helps there too. One day, the children plan to spend the night in a cave together with the dragon. Accidentally, they discover an old map on a cave wall and Cmoudik, whose one head speaks Czech and the other Slovak, begins to tell a thrilling story about a Kingdom of Dragon. He tells the children about a great love of Princess Adelka and Prince Janek, about a curse and a terrible dragon, evil sprite Blivajz, and also about a mystery of a Forget-me-not Meadow, lost dragon egg and a pair of kangaroos. From the American Sokol Lending Library.

March 20 Nowhere in Moravia / Díra u Hanušovic; 2014;  99 minutes; Color; English Subtitles; Rating: PG-Language & Sexual content, no nudity; This is the portrait of village life often painted in British films: nothing happens, nothing improves, and you'll waste your life if you stay there. Like My Sweet Little Village (Shown 1/2015 & 11/2024), there were plenty of dry one-liners. Maruna, a German teacher and the pub owner in a small town, sleeps with the mayor and a roofer while looking for love. Miroslav Krobot’s morosely funny Nowhere in Moravia is a downbeat portrayal of small lives, set in a tiny village where life takes forever. The opening hours of the local hospoda marks the passing of time, and there are two main ways out – by bus and by coffin. I laughed far more during Nowhere in Moravia than I do in most mainstream American comedies these days, and there is much joy to be had from the bric-a-brac of ordinary life tucked in the corners of cinematographer Jan Baset Střítežský’s gorgeous compositions. Some of the more farcical elements could be straight from the pages of Hrabal, and a thread of small-town ennui traces back at least as far as Rozmarné léto (Capricious Summer (Shown 6/2016; & 6/2019). The lightweight story centers around thirty-something Marun. From the American Sokol Lending Library.

April 17 KOLJA/KOLYA; 1996; 105 Minutes; Color; English subtitles; Rating: PG-13. (Last shown 9/2013 & 5/2021). František Louka, a 55-year old Czech man dedicated to bachelorhood and the pursuit of women, is a concert cellist struggling to make out a living by playing funerals at the Prague crematorium. He has lost his previous job at the Czech Philharmonic (the Stern Quartet, Czech Philharmonic plays) due to having been half-accidentally blacklisted as "politically unreliable" by the authorities. A friend (Broz, the gravedigger) offers him a chance to earn a great deal of money through a sham marriage to a Russian woman, his niece, Nadezda to enable her to stay in Czechoslovakia. The woman then uses her Czechoslovak citizenship to emigrate and join her boyfriend in West Germany.  After her aunt unexpectedly dies, Louka finds himself in custody of his new “stepson”, due to a concurrence of circumstances; she must leave behind her Russian-speaking five-year-old son, Kolya, for the disgruntled Czech musician to look after.

May 15 Taxi 121/ Taxi 121; 2016; 90 Minutes; Color; English subtitles; PG-13 Violence; Brief scenes of intercourse; Based on real events in Czechoslovakia from 2014, Taxi 121 tells the story of a serial killer who targeted three taxi drivers in Prague. The official police version attributes the murders to a single perpetrator whose psychological profile is still under speculation. David Panek’s feature debut presents his take on the true events from 2014 that deeply affected Czech society.  That year, a serial killer murdered three taxi drivers in Prague.  This tragedy inspired Panek to create a gripping thriller that immerses the viewer in the story, evoking a wide range of emotions.

Sokol Spirit’s Education Committee reserves the right to change movies due to circumstances beyond their control.

DO NOT FORGET WORLD BEER CLUB

follows in the building’s lower level starting at 8pm!

Sokol Spirit is a 501(C)(3) not-for-profit organization.