News

The Prague Zoo plans to repair two wooden Cubist houses built by the renowned Czech architect Josef Gočár, relocate them to an upper part of the garden and open them to the public. The houses were damaged by flood water in August 2002 and they have been in bad shape since then. The renovation will cost around 30 million crowns.

Around 400 people attended a neo-Nazi rock concert at Ochoz near Brno on Saturday evening. The event was monitored by hundreds of police officers. One of the organisers said the attentions of the state and the media had put off some would-be attendees, while most of the far-right rock groups slated to play at the outdoor concert also pulled out. Another such event is planned for the Pardubice area in east Bohemia the weekend after next.

Experts on extremism have told the Czech Press Agency they believe the Czech far right is planning to try to enter politics at the national level. The neo-Nazis long-term strategy involves a concerted effort to not break the law in order to gain broader support with an eye to eventually entering Parliament, a member of the Czech Helsinki Committee said. The Interior Ministry recently said it would put more energy into monitoring far-right groups.

There are plans to make a feature film about the controversial Christian Democrats leader and deputy prime minister Jiří Čunek. The movie will be directed by Robert Sedláček, who is best known for the 2006 picture Rules of Lies. While the lead role has yet to be filled, the director told the idnes.cz website that the part of Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg would be played by the Slovak actor and director Martin Huba. Minister Schwarzenberg had at one point seemed ready to quit the cabinet if Mr Čunek remained in government. The latter has been the subject of financial scandals and also made headlines over evidently racist comments he made about the Czech Republic’s Roma minority.

The 34th Uherské Hradiště Film School came to end in the south Moravian town on Sunday. Nearly 400 short and feature length films were shown over a week and a half. Among the guests this year were the great Czech director Jan Švankmajer, Slovak director Juraj Jakubisko and the writer Pavel Kohout. Accompanying events such as lectures and rock concerts were also held at the film school, which this year was under new management.