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The film version of Václav Havel’s play Leaving hits the silver screen tonight, with premieres at Lucerna Palace (which his grandfather designed, incidentally) and Slovanský Dům. The former president and playwright has said that directing a film was a dream of his and ‘Leaving’ is the first fruit of his cinematic labour. But pre-release reviews have thrown cold water on the big expectations around the film. Earlier today we spoke with Theo Schwinke, the Eastern European correspondent for the multimedia magazine Screen International who was among

Nine months after winning the general elections yet failing to form a government, the opposition Social Democrats elected new leadership at a party congress in Brno over the weekend. In a tight vote for the new leader, acting chair Bohuslav Sobotka beat his main rival, South Moravian governor Michal Hašek, who was elected deputy chair. Social Democrats hope the new leadership will boost the party’s support.

The Czech Republic’s biggest opposition party, the left-of-centre Social Democratic Party, begins a two day congress on Friday which should elect a new leader. Former leader Jiří Paroubek stepped down after disappointing election results in May last year cast the party into the opposition. The two leading contenders are former finance minister and acting party chief, Bohuslav Sobotka, and the governor of Southern Moravia, Michal Hašek. Political analyst Jiří Pehe spoke with Jan Richter about the meeting in Brno and the biggest impact of the leadership

Police on Thursday charged a 41-year-old man with murder and rape of nine-year-old Anna J. who went missing in the Prague neighbourhood of Trója in October. Her body was found some 800 metres from the place where she was last seen. The man has been the main suspect in the case ever since his DNA was found on the girl’s abandoned schoolbag.

Guided tours with a difference have been launched in Prague – instead of highlighting the attractive cultural monuments favoured by the usual tour guides they put the spotlight on those examples of urban blight, dilapidation and thoughtless construction. And the ugly face of the capital’s development provides no shortage of routes.

The famous Jurkovič House in Brno, belonging to the Moravian Gallery in Brno, will reopen to the public in roughly two week’s time following extensive renovation. Designed by the Slovak architect Dušan Jurkovič and dating back to 1906, the Art Nouveau villa – which makes marked use of rustic or folklore elements – will serve as a multiple-purpose museum for the gallery. The building ranks as a gem of early 20th century architecture, ranking similarly in importance to the Villa Tugendhat. A little earlier the gallery’s deputy director Kateřina Tlachová

Two army aircraft left Prague for Japan on Tuesday evening to bring back selected Czechs, Poles and Slovaks, primarily women and children, from the disaster-stricken main island of Honshu. Among the evacuees are roughly half of the members of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, which was supposed to be touring the country for another week after the earthquake struck. Just over a hundred people have been evacuated, with a promise of more army flights if the situation requires.

Prague’s Café Braun will host an unusual event this week; each evening members of the public will be invited to sit down over coffee or a glass of wine with a leading scientist, to discuss some of the exciting developments in their field. The event’s called ‘a Week of Science Cafés’, and it’s part of a broader campaign by the NGO Czech Head to try and popularise science.

The Czech Constitutional Court ruled on Monday that the government’s austerity package, adopted in late 2010, was approved in breach of the constitution. The package, which slashed social and other benefits to lower the deficit in public finances, was pushed through Parliament after having called a “legislative emergency”. The court said this was unacceptable, and gave the government until the end of the year to have the laws re-approved.

The Czech defence Minister Alexandr Vondra, has suspended from office the head of the Czech military police and two high-level commanders over an unprecedented incident on Friday at the headquarters of public broadcaster Czech TV. Early in the evening - as the station aired its primetime news broadcast - nine masked and heavily armed members of a military command unit forced their way into the news building, pushing past security guards and jumping turnstiles.