David Rauch

A well-known writer now aged 75 is aware of his increasing age and the risk that his literary style will grow worn. His everyday existence is enlivened by characters from his stories, who tend to enter reality in unexpected ways, at various stages of completeness and with all kinds of strange demands.

Celebrity hairdresser Erika might seem to have it all: a successful business, her own TV show, stylish modern loft in center of Prague, designer clothes, lots of friends and an ever-loving mother with a housework fixation. However, as Erika reaches her 40th birthday, all of a sudden here comes the deafening tick of her biological clock.Erika wants a baby and it has to be now or never. She is longing for a young life, even though she finds her own mother hard to get close to. The trouble is, she needs a man. The film follows in the lines of trashy genres, but at the same time it plays with them and by stressing 'gender themes' it even enters the poetics and ideology of feminism.

Colin Frampton is an Englishman who never stops worrying, not even on holiday in Prague. When Colin's wife is accidentally squashed by a statue, he decides that he can't face life without her. So Colin bribes Pavel to help him die. An unlikely friendship develops as Pavel's plans for Colin's death spin out of control, attracting the violent interest of local gangster Karel Karlovic.

March 1945. It is already quite obvious to the Nazis that they cannot win the war. So it is time to think about the future after the war and to cover their tracks. One concentration camp must be completely cleared out and the prisoners buried in the mines. Only the mine-hunters remain - among them Ernest, a veteran of the Spanish Civil War from Vienna, and Kim, a resistance fighter from Prague. One day they decide to escape with the other prisoners, but they are betrayed and most of the escapees are shot. The pair of heroes are not alone, however, and on the way they are joined by a guard dog from the camp that Kim used to feed. In the coming days, Ernest leads young Kim through the unrelenting cold on his journey to freedom, teaching him that there is only one rule to follow in this time - kill or be killed.

A stories about friendship and love, children and parents, students and teachers - all from one regular Czech school during the eighties.