On the right lines - the Prague festival comes to the Broadway

Before you dismiss Prague let me just mention a couple of things - A Knight's Tale and Johnny Depp's From Hell.

Their link to Czechoslovakia? Well, both movies were filmed in the capital city.

Having said that, don't expect to see either at the Prague On Film festival which comes to the Broadway, Nottingham from 5 - 26th May.

Do expect to see films equal in depth and beauty but without the Hollywood tag.

Over the coming weeks 13 movies and nine short documentaries will be shown ranging from comic to surreal to controversial.

Those being shown will range from the 1930's silent era to groundbreaking New Wave Czech cinema of the 60's to the present day.

Prague Film Festival - What's showing
Buttoners - 5th May
A black comedy about ordinary people who bargain with fate at the end of the 20th century. It’s a funny film about spitting on trains, bad weather, the atom bomb, shooting human sperm into space, infidelity and people who have killed other people. A kaleidoscope of eccentric characters makes up a picture of a cruel world where everything is connected with everything else and events seem to repeat themselves.

Love at the train station. Good job it wasn't filmed at Nottingham, they'd have been waiting ages for the connection

Prague Stories - 19th May
Prague stories inspired by New York Stories and the famous Paris vu par, is a movie about human relationships in contemporary Prague seen from the perspective of four distinctive directors. We meet a successful Czech journalist looking for the meaning of life and wavering between his pregnant wife and his colleagues; former lovers who re-enact a love affair; a mother and daughter coming to terms with each other and the death of the old and birth of a new love affair. Love tangles, tragicomic communication problems and the uneasy overcoming of alienation are the common themes of the individual episodes where the city is almost like another character.

Scene from Loners

Loners - 12th May
Seven Prague-based characters looking for love find themselves in this offbeat engaging tragicomedy. A very fresh and spontaneous film full of dreamlike absurdity enhanced by the haze of marijuana. Zelenka’s witty script exploiting and linking situations similar to those in Buttoners (watch out for the Japanese encounter with Czech family life!) is supported by highly stylistic music and Ondricek’s distinctive visual style. Definitely a winner with the younger generation, Loners belongs fully to the contemporary trend of European independent cinema.

Leading Czech director Vera Chytilova

Focus on: Vera Chytilova
Vera Chytilova, one of the foremost directors of the 60s Czech New Wave, was always closely associated with Prague. Her career from the start was daring and original with an ability to observe ordinary, everyday things in an unconventional way and from unexpected angles. This first British retrospective of her work pays homage to the range of her abilities.

Daisies - 26th May
Daisies concerns the pranks of two girls. Marie I and Marie II, who destroy life around them. Outrageous décor and dazzling cinematography play an integral part in this nihilistic tale of senseless provocation.

It's a black comedy, honest. Traps is one of the last films to be screened during the festival

Traps - 26th May
A feminist black comedy about a vet who, after being raped by two men, uses her particular expertise to take her revenge. Oscillating between tragedy and comedy with some really hilarious scenes, the film uses rape as the departure for an analysis of morality and power in contemporary society. Life itself and the instinct for self-preservation is the biggest trap of the film. The others are pride, love and the essentially primitive nature of being.

Expect the Broadway to be transformed into a mini-Prague over the coming weeks.

There'll certainly be the true taste of Czechoslovakia on offer.

The festival is being sponsored by Staropramen, brewers of one of the leading lagers in the country.

That's not going to stop us saying this will probably be one of the best film festivals you'll see this year.