Sydney Czech & Slovak Film Festival 2023

The Czech and Slovak film festival turns 10! The 6-day event is held in DENDY Newtown.
To mark this anniversary, the festival will run over 2 weekends from Friday March 24 to Sunday April 2nd to give you the opportunity to see many more movies than in the past couple of years.

As every year, there will be a diverse mix of recent films with many of them shown to the Australian public for the first time. The program is packed with great features including, dramas, thrillers, romances, comedies, documentaries and the popular, often quirky shorts and animations that have become part and parcel of the festival.

Some of the feature films not to miss:

The biopic IL BOEMO | FRI 24 March 6:30 PM @ DENDY Newtown - shot primarily in Italy, kicks off this year's film line-up. The period drama explores the life of Josef Mysliveček, a Czech immigrant in Italy who became the most prolific opera composer of the 18th century – inspiring Mozart, , among others, and becoming his friend.

THE BARNABAS KOS CASE | SAT 25 March 4:00 PM @ DENDY Newtown - A satirical comedy about the weakness of the human soul and the vanity of men who achieve power. Set in the 1960s, Peter Solan’s stylish, well shot film is a satirical yet scathing view of society gone mad with bureaucracy.
Barnabáš Kos is a man with a vision. A timid triangle player spends more time on various committees, official boards, and outings than he does rehearsing with his orchestra. Always the butt of the joke with his musical peers – and society at large – everything changes when he is promoted to the role of maestro.

The most expensive Czech film in history, the blockbuster MEDIEVAL | FRI 31 March 6:30 PM @ DENDY Newtown - stars internationally celebrated actors such as Ben Foster, Michael Caine, and Til Schweiger. It focuses on the early life of the famous 15th Century Czech Hussite warlord Jan Žižka, known for his innovative tactics, charisma, and courage.
The Czech 'Braveheart' drama centres around two royal brothers who jostle for the throne. The historical epic takes a brutal look at the early days of the national hero who becomes embroiled in the royal feud. Jan Žižka (Ben Foster) was an unmatched military tactician and an innovator in weaponry, who never lost a single battle despite leading an army of peasants and farmers against hardened soldiers. And most of the time, he was either partially or (later in his life) completely blind.

The black and white award-winning drama THE BALLAD OF PIARGY | SAT 1 April 7 PM @ DENDY Newtown - a film with 30+ awards and counting, a love story of unclear guilt, love, and cruel punishment will be shown in its Australian premiere.

The feature-length animated story MY SUNNY MAAD | SAT 1 April 4 PM @ DENDY Newtown - by Oscar nominated and internationally acclaimed Czech animator Michaela Pavlátová brings gentle humour and well observed everyday details from the family life of a Czech woman who has no idea of the life that awaits her in post-Taliban Afghanistan, or the family she is about to join.
Under the name Herra, she begins a new life stage in an exotic environment. But there is no easy way to the dream future. Not everyone has as big a heart as Nazir and as much sense of humour as the head of the family, progressive and warm grandfather.

The documentary THE GOOD OLD CZECHS | SAT 1 April 1:30 PM @ DENDY Newtown - is the Ulyssean story of two Czechoslovak airmen out of thousands fighting across war torn Europe.
A unique poetic form of archive storytelling with never-before-seen footage of WWII from the archives of both Czech and Slovak countries as well as the UK telling the story of Czechoslovak airmen who escaped to fight the Nazis after the Munich Agreement paved the way for the occupation of their homeland. It follows their experiences across the whole of Europe, the euphoria of their return at the end of the war, and their betrayal and persecution once the communists took power in 1948.