Belmont World Film presents "Czech That Film"

Boston’s inaugural edition of “Czech That Film,” a 21-city festival held in the US and Canada from April-August, featuring the best new films from the Czech Republic. Director Jan Hřebejk in person!

Belmont World Film (BWF) presents Boston’s inaugural edition of “Czech That Film,” a film festival held in 21 cities in the US and Canada, featuring the best new films from the Czech Republic. The program includes the three films in Czech director Jan Hřebejk’s “Garden Store Trilogy” followed by discussions with the director, an Oscar nominee for "Divided We Fall", as well as an invitation-only reception with the director for BWF members. The films tell the stories of three related families in Prague during one of the most dramatic periods of the last century—from World War II to the early 1950s—when the Czech Republic was taken over by Communism.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, the movement that brought down 41 years of one-party Communist rule in the Czech Republic and saw the election of playwright-turned dissident Vaclav Havel as the country’s first democratically-elected president in decades. The films in the trilogy are a reminder of the significance of that freedom and a celebration of how far the country has come since country’s dark days when families and friends were set against one another.

"Family Friend," which screens Sunday, May 19, at 2:00 PM, portrays three young women related by marriage and blood and two children who await the return of their imprisoned husbands and fathers during World War II. During this difficult time, a family friend and doctor selflessly helps the family that is forced to live together due to the circumstances of war. "Deserter," screens at 7:30 PM the same day. In this film, the owner of an exclusive hair salon in the center of Prague—that used to employ most of his family—returns home after Nazi imprisonment. The salon used to be his dearest fulfillment, but the war changed everything and everyo