Pred sviatkami

Detective Lieutenant Boruvka (Lubomír Lipský) is called to the State Scientific Library to investigate the loss of a precious manuscript, the Infernal Psalter of the Occult Sciences by Master Peregrinus from the eleventh century, written in a secret script which has only recently been deciphered by senior lecturer Zajíc (Josef Chvalina). Chaos is reigning in the labyrinth of passages and halls of the former monastery where the library is housed. In order to save space the director of the library has introduced a peculiar system. The books are arranged in the bookcases according to height and six girls dressed in black, the library assistants, are quite happy to cut volumes down to size in case of need. Boruvka refuses the case, since he is specialist in murders. He has to return to the investigation, however, when senior lecturer Zajíc disappears.

Two historical stories about love. In the story "The Arabian Horse", the scheming townsman Messer Francesco Vergellesi is so firmly convinced of his wife's virtue that he does not hesitate to bet her against a rare stallion he has a crush on... The story "The Earrings" shows how a poor girl can help herself to a rare jewel and what intrigues are needed for an elderly noble couple to finally have an heir...

From his early silent works, the great Russian film director, Herr Yakov Protazanov, made literary adaptations from equally great Russian writers, as is the case with "Chiny I Lyudi" ( Ranks And People ) (1929) in which three short stories by Chekhov, "Anna On The Neck", "Death Of A Petty Official" and "Chameleon" were assembled for the silent screen.

Based on Jan Neruda's column of the same name, which depicts the troubles of an old straw man. The film is introduced by poet Jaroslav Seifert with a speech about Jan Neruda and his work.

Five crime stories connected by the narration of police superintendent Bartosek.

Fernando (Fernando Tejero) is a loser. A gray type, without ambition, that works like bookcases distributor in a supermarket of the quarter. In his free short whiles, he is a substitute keeper of a football team, a third regional one. In all the season he has not played a single minute. But the last Sunday of the league the referee indicates penalty and the regular keeper injures itself. Fernando must occupy the goal for the first time. If penalty scores, the team of the district will proclaim champion. If no, all the effort of a year will not have been worth for anything. When the penalty is just about to be kicked, a group of indignant fans with the referee invades the field and prevents the kick. The competition committee decides that the penalty must play the following Sunday, in the same goal, with same players and the field closed to the public. El Penalti más largo del mundo, (The Longest Penalty Shot in the World) is exactly the history of that week of delay.

Jaroslav Hašek screens four film stories in the fairground shed around 1900. After period advertising slides and a "newspaper", we see "the first part of a sensational, exemplary, parfuss, salon program - a film from the life of school-age children, shot under very difficult circumstances". The plot of this film takes place partly in a school classroom and partly in a gymnasium toilet, where the primate Chocholka took refuge from a Latin composition. "Exemplary Family Happiness" is the second film that takes the viewer into the family of the municipal official Honzátek, in which many stormy scenes occurred when the hamster, provided by Honzátek Jr., moved into the sofa - a wedding gift from Sister Ema. Equally surprising are two other stories, one of which tells about the "father of the poor", the owner of a company with unrecoverable cash flow and a famous patron, and the other about the fateful consequences of a joint trip between the old bachelor Mr. Hanzlíček and his neighbors.

Smart Man Nassredin easily penetrates into Bukhara Emir inner circle posing as Wise Man from Damascus. He becomes Emir trusted advisor, and even convinces the tyrant to relax the rule and release a lot of political prisoners (because stars favor this arrangement).

Jane is about to have a beautiful weekend in the mountains with her boyfriend – at least, that’s what she thinks. But instead of her boyfriend, three uninvited guests show up at her doorstep, and they’re not going away. It’s getting dark, a contest begins, and Jane happens to be the grand prize. There’s only one person who can help her.

Johann Faust comes back to life. After centuries spent in darkness he unleashes a night of terror in Prague, with vampires, zombies and mutants. This time, Faust has a new obsession - to get even with his past life and his family. There is also the devil Mephistopheles, who controls everything like a puppeteer from afar. The film based on Goethe's iconic work and unpublished, short stories by F. Kotleta and K. Sněgoňová presenting bloody coctail of horror and fantasy.