On the eve of Czechoslovakia's first free parliamentary elections and a papal visit, party leaders, actors, heads of state, philosophers, and union bosses look forward and back, as President Václav Havel and philosopher Ivan Sviták propose sharply differing political views in parallel. (1992, 35 mm, Czech, English, and French with subtitles, 207 minutes with intermission)

Vachek visits an ailing Ivan Sviták, then takes two busloads of talkative, opinionated artists and scholars on a trek to the newly designated UNESCO World Heritage Site, Český Krumlov. They view a golden coach in a church, night pageants on torch-lit river rafts, and a variety of party leaders—a portrait of the new Czech Republic post the Slovakian split. (1996, 35 mm, Czech, English, and French with subtitles, 216 minutes with intermission)

Working from an unrealized screenplay of the 1970s and ideas of the 17th- century historian Bohuslav Balbín, Vachek introduces, at irregular intervals, Bohemian castles, various kinds of Czech mushrooms, a lost procommunist opera, and the rock group Plastic People of the Universe. "The entire movie is one great Dadaist poem."—Monika Valentová (2000, 35 mm, Czech, English, and French with subtitles, 254 minutes with intermission)

As the camera wanders over, around, and through Prague's lavish National Theater, director J. A. Pitínský coaches singers through a rehearsal of Smetana's tragic opera Dalibor. Intercut with the tale of the 15th-century knight who, imprisoned, refused to name names, Vachek interviews, on the plush red velvet seats of the empty theater, a whole series of latter-day rebels. (2002, 35 mm, English and Czech with subtitles, 242 minutes with intermission)