Current Affairs | All stories

Each year, as the Karlovy Vary Film Festival gets underway, the West Bohemian spa town becomes the Czech Republic’s undisputed cultural capital for a week. The epicentres are the cinemas of course, with more than 200 films from around the world. But there are all kinds of goings on that that keep the town abuzz from early morn to early morn for eight long days. Christian Falvey is in Karlovy Vary, trying to keep up with it all.

The Justice Minister Daniela Kovářová has qualified comments made earlier this week on overcrowding in the country’s prisons. The comments came at the end of a two-day inspection trip to penal facilities around the Czech Republic, and were interpreted by the media as suggesting the Czech prison system was close to collapse. This is not the case, says Mrs Kovářová, although the situation is serious.

The Czech Republic, like any Western country, may be inundated with American cinema, but just when you think you’ve seen it all, the US shows it has some more surprises. And if you’re going to see them anywhere then it’s going to be in Karlovy Vary, where the 44th International Film Festival is taking place. This week one of those surprises was a film and a director who has breathed new life into the inimitably American film genre of blaxploitation. Christian Falvey reports from Karlovy Vary.

The head of the Czech FA Ivan Hašek announced on Tuesday he was taking an unusual but necessary step: in addition to his current responsibilities, heading the national football squad. The team has floundered in World Cup qualifying and is now at risk at failing to make the tournament in South Africa in 2010 - unless someone turns it fortunes around. It is hoped that Hašek, a highly-respected former player and coach, could be the right man for the post.

It had been home to Prague’s last remaining squat; now it’s lying empty, its future uncertain. The fate of the Milada villa – and of the small anarchist collective who’d been living in it - has dominated headlines in the Czech media over the last few days since the last squatters were removed from the building. But an improvised plan to relocate the squatters has also ruffled feathers.

The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival opened at the weekend with a star-studded audience at Friday’s gala event. Among those present were the French director Patrice Chéreau and his compatriot, actress Isabelle Huppert, who received the festival’s first award. Particularly poignant though was the presence of Czech born director Miloš Forman, as it marked the return of a famous son to his native home and native language. Christian Falvey reports on the opening days of the 44th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

A new row has blown up over the treatment of the Czechoslovak secret police files. This time a former anti-communist dissident says he will take the step of publishing what he describes as crucial computerised databases on around 100,000 people who had dealings with the secret police. He says he has taken the step because the official state guardian of the police records would not do so.

Every July, the Czech Republic sees the return of the famous Karlovy Vary International Film Festival - eight days of world-class cinematography and seven nights of world-class parties. Our reporter Christian Falvey begins a week of stories on both.

A small group of Czechs who have been seeking justice for almost 70 years have now been promised they will be compensated for property lost before and after WWII. The Czechs lost out when the Hungarians and then the Soviet Union took over Subcarpathian Ruthenia – formerly the most eastern tip of Czechoslovakia. After many setbacks, Czech lawmakers have now given the final go-ahead for compensation.

15 cases of swine flu have now been registered in the Czech Republic – five new cases on Thursday alone. Officials revealed Czechs had come down with the illness after having returned from the US (and in one case Japan). While all incidents of the disease are being described as mild, it is clear that further cases are inevitable: Great Britain alone, much harder hit, has projected 100,000 new cases per day by the end of the summer.