10 Best Movies Set in or About Czech Republic

10 Movies Set in or About Czech Republic

Foreign-led films whose sustained setting or subject remains centered on Czech Republic.

1. 

   1. The Confession

   L'Aveu · 1970

   In 1950s Communist Czechoslovakia, a loyal party official and war veteran is suddenly placed under surveillance, arrested, and subjected to a grueling campaign to extract a false confession. Costa-Gavras's chilling drama of the Stalinist show trials, based on a true account.

2. 

   2. One Life

   2023

   Based on a true story, a young London stockbroker organizes the rescue of hundreds of Jewish children from occupied Czechoslovakia on the eve of World War II — a feat he keeps quiet for decades until it resurfaces late in his life. A moving historical drama.

3. 

   3. The Fireman's Ball

   Hoří, má panenko · 1967

   The volunteer firemen of a small Czech town throw a ball to honor their retiring chief, complete with a raffle and a beauty pageant — but everything that can go wrong does. Miloš Forman's gently biting comedy of collective incompetence.

4. 

   4. Dinner for Adele

   Adéla ještě nevečeřela · 1978

   The great American detective Nick Carter comes to turn-of-the-century Prague to solve the case of a missing dog and a monstrous carnivorous plant, matching wits with a fiendish criminal mastermind known as the Gardener. A playful retro comedy-mystery.

5. 

   5. The Unbearable Lightness of Being

   1988

   In Prague in the 1960s, a womanizing surgeon torn between a free-spirited mistress and the earnest woman he marries finds his life and loves upended by the Soviet crushing of the Prague Spring. Adapted from Milan Kundera's novel.

6. 

   6. The Golem: How He Came into the World

   Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam · 1920

   In 16th-century Prague, a rabbi molds a giant man of clay and animates it through sorcery to protect the Jews of the ghetto from persecution — but the creature's power proves difficult to control. A landmark of German silent horror.

7. 

   7. Valerie and Her Week of Wonders

   Valerie a týden divů · 1970

   A dreamy Czech girl on the cusp of womanhood, given a pair of magic earrings, drifts through a lush, unsettling fairy-tale world of vampires, priests, and desire where reality and nightmare blur. A hypnotic surrealist fantasy.

8. 

   8. Operation Daybreak

   1975

   In 1942, three Czech patriots parachute into occupied Prague on a perilous mission to assassinate the brutal Nazi governor Reinhard Heydrich, knowing the reprisals that may follow. A tense wartime thriller based on true events.

9. 

   9. The Man with the Iron Heart

   2017

   At the height of the Third Reich in 1942, two resistance fighters parachute into occupied Prague on a daring mission to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich, one of the most feared Nazi leaders. Based on the true story of Operation Anthropoid.

10. 

    10. Mark of the Vampire

    1935

    When a Prague nobleman is found dead bearing all the marks of a vampire attack, terror grips his household as sinister figures stalk the estate — though the truth may be stranger than superstition. A moody horror mystery from Tod Browning.