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"Silny Kafe", a bittersweet comedy which takes place in that most typical of Czech settings, the weekend chalupa, or cottage, met with a positive response from critics when it opened recently. The remarkable thing about "Silny Kafe" is that it was written and directed not by a Czech, but by a young Icelandic director called Borkur Gunnarsson. I asked Mr Gunnarrson what had brought him to the Czech Republic.

Dagmar Simkova is an artist whose paintings, sculptures and puppets have sold in England, France, Germany, Sweden and even far-away Thailand. Her work, which was "too surreal" for the communist regime, now graces many a private collection both at home and abroad.

After weeks of negotiations, Stanislav Gross has finally been appointed prime minister. But with a very slim majority in the Chamber of Deputies - and divisions within his Social Democratic Party - what are the chances of the youthful Mr Gross succeeding as head of government? Political scientist, Jiri Pehe:

After weeks of political horse-trading, Social Democrat party leader Stanislav Gross was officially appointed as Czech Prime Minister on Monday afternoon. At age 34, Mr Gross is now the youngest serving premier in Europe, and by far the youngest in Czech history.

Anyone who's been in Prague in the last couple of months will have seen hundreds of brightly painted scupltures of cows on the city's streets. Most locals and tourists seem to like the Cow Parade, as it's called, but the bovine sculptures are evidently not to everyone's liking, with many of them having been vandalized. Now organizers have struck back, with ads calling the vandalism an "international disgrace", and drawing attention to the fact children's charities will lose out - many of the cows are due to be auctioned when the Cow Parade ends

Friday's surprise announcement by the coalition parties that they would nominate the outgoing Prime Minister and Euro-enthusiast Vladimir Spidla as the Czech Republic's new European Commissioner has provoked mixed reactions in the Czech Republic.

Last Friday, the ruling coalition parties — the Social Democrats, the Christian Democrats and the Freedom Union — announced they had agreed to send outgoing Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla to Brussels to take over for the Czech Republic's current European Union Commissioner, Pavel Telicka. Mr Telicka has yet to receive official notice of — or an explanation for — his dismissal. He first learned of his planned dismissal from a friend. This weekend, during a trip to Prague, he hoped to get some answers from acting leader of the Social Democrats, Stanislav

As every year at this time the Moravian town Uherske Hradiste is host to the Summer Film School. The event, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, began as a summer gathering of a few film fans who spent their holiday watching independent films, has later evolved into a generally respected cine-meeting visited by people from all over the country.

In the small Bohemian town of Libochovice, about 60 kilometers from Prague, a unique international relief effort is taking place. Volunteers are working to restore the town's old Jewish cemetery. They hope that the restored site will help both visitors and locals alike to remember a vanished part of this region's heritage.

On Thursday a regional court served a 43 year old police officer an 18 months suspended sentence for brutally beating up a man who the officer said had been cruel to his dog. The court was held just a few days after a traffic officer in the west Bohemian town of Pilsen caused an uproar by shooting at a pedestrian who was crossing the street on a red light. Such incidents of abuse of position seriously hinder the long-term efforts of the police to present itself as a body which serves and protects.