"Czech That Film" presented by Belmont World Film

Belmont World Film presents Boston’s inaugural edition of “Czech That Film,” a 21-city festival held in the US and Canada from April through August that features the best new films from the Czech Republic —the largest and most successful annual presentation of Czech culture in North America. 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), who will be visiting from the Czech Republic, as well as an invitation-only reception with the director for Belmont World Film members. The three 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.

The first film, Family Friend, screens Sunday, May 19, at 2:00 PM. In the film three young women related by marriage and blood and two children 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. The second film, 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 everyone. The final film in the series, Suitor, a romantic comedy about parents’ expectations for their children’s futures set in the 1950’s in Prague, screens Monday, May 20, at 7:30 PM. The film concentrates on family relations scarred by the war and the Czech Republic’s Communist takeover.