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For the second time, Prague’s Supreme Court has overturned a Prague city court verdict regarding an ownership dispute over one half of the capital’s famous Lucerna palace between former president Václav Havel’s sister-in-law Dagmar Havlová and the real-estate firm Chemapol. According to the Supreme Court, the city court’s judge failed to properly determine the actual value of the Lucerna palace real estate. In the city court’s verdict, the ruling judge argued that when Mrs Havlová bought half of the palace from Chemapol, the firm was threatened by bankruptcy and sold it at a much lower price than the actual value of the real estate. The judge based her estimate of the real estate’s value on the price that Chemapol paid the former president when it bought the other half of the palace in 1997.

Jan Bubeník was one of the organisers of a student march in Prague on November 17, 1989 to mark the anniversary of a Nazi crackdown on Czech universities 50 years previously. When the marchers carried on to Národní St in the centre of the city they were brutally attacked by police, an incident which set in train the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia. Bubeník quickly became one of the student leaders of the Velvet Revolution, and even served briefly as a member of parliament. Today he runs a successful recruitment agency. At its Prague offices

In Magazine this week: the head of the Czech Roman Catholic church shows believers around Prague’s Archbishop’s Palace in a series of online videos; Radek Štěpánek and Nicole Vaidišová exchange vows – but they aren’t the only Czech sportspeople to marry; and PC monitoring software suggests Czechs are now slacking less at the office.

Former Czech president Václav Havel will begin filming an adaptation of his play ‘Leaving’ on Thursday. Shooting will take place over two months in the east Bohemian town of Česká Skalice, around 160 kilometers north-east of Prague. Mr Havel is making his debut as a film director at the age of 73. ‘Leaving’ was Havel’s first play after a 20-year gap and made its stage debut in 2008. It recounts the story of a chancellor who quits power and enters the political wilderness accompanied by a large dose of cynicism. Havel’s wife, Dagmar, will have a major acting role in the new film.

The former president Václav Havel has begun directing a film adaptation of his latest play, Leaving. The play, which premiered in 2008, deals with a politician's painful adjustment to a new life after retiring from politics. The 73-year-old playwright led his country for 13 years, but since his own political retirement has returned to stage work – and is now making his debut in film.

Former Czech president Václav Havel is to begin filming an adaptation of his play Leaving on Thursday, the newspaper Lidové noviny reported. Shooting will take place over two months in the east Bohemian town of Česká Skalice. Mr Havel is making his debut as a film director at the age of 73. Leaving, which was first performed on stage in 2008, concerns a chancellor who quits power and enters the political wilderness.

The first year of what looks set to become the biggest annual theatrical event in the country launched at the weekend. The nine-day Theatre World Festival in Brno will feature ensembles from a dozen countries. However, the main attraction comes from the Czech Republic, in the form of the complete works of playwright-president Václav Havel, some of which will receive their world premiere.

A new theater festival in Brno will be presenting the entire dramatic oeuvre of former president Václav Havel, including some little known plays and fragments. Mr Havel himself said that the project was ambitious and that he felt honored to be welcomed back by the theater world after taking a twenty-year break. The festival will be ongoing until June 19. Mr Havel is only able to attend three days of the festival since the filming of a screen version of Leaving, his newest play, is to start soon.

Václav Havel was placed in intensive care in New York after suffering serious heart arrhythmia during a visit to the United States last month. The playwright and former president, who is 73, made the illness public on Friday. In a statement on his website, he said that he had recovered completely. A former chain smoker, Mr Havel had bouts of lung cancer in the 1990s and suffers from breathing difficulties. The one-time dissident is currently in Prague preparing to film a staging of his most recent play Leaving.

Playwright and former Czech president Václav Havel will receive this year’s Franz Kafka Prize, organizers said on Tuesday. The literary award is co-sponsored by the Franz Kafka Society and the Prague Town Hall and includes a financial reward of USD 10,000. Previous recipients include Ivan Klíma, Harold Pinter and Philip Roth. Václav Havel, who retired as president in 2003, is currently preparing his debut as film director; in July, he will direct a movie based on his latest play, Leaving.