Other good/classic/better films from or about this area?

* Forman's Fireman's ball(Hoří, má panenko, 1967), it doesn't get much better than that...
* My sweet little village (Vesničko má středisková) sweet comedy, definitely worth seeing
* Želary

.... and lots more

can't really tell you why I love them, they're just damn good films, see for yourself, you won't regret it :)

Here are my favourite movies:
Coz takhle dat si spenat
Dedicstvi aneb kurvahosigutentag
Diky za kazde nove rano
Divka na kosteti
Fimfarum Jana Wericha
Jak utopit doktora Mracka aneb konec vodniku v Cechach
Je treba zabit Sekala
Krajinka
Kral zlodeju
Krava
Kure melancholik
Kytice
Marecku, podejte mi pero
Nejasna zprava o konci sveta
Pane, vy jste vdova!
Pani kluci
Pelisky
Pupendo
Samotari
Tri orisky pro popelku
Vesnicko ma strediskova
Vrchni, prchni

I'd say the opposite is true. People have little or no first-hand knowledge of living in a Warsaw Treaty country tend to accept such stories as yours at face value. Any sensible person who actually lived then and doesn't suffer from amnesia would laugh your tall tales of pervasive persecution off as fiction, and would be absolutely right to do it.

Not sure, if it were true even for during the dark Stalin period, but 70-s or 80-s that's sheer nonsense. Don't quite comprehend why you like Kolja so much, for it gives a pretty fair account of how it was that disproves everything you wrote.

It's used to be all girls with no clothes. Now, it's all clothes and no girls.

definitely look for pelisky. it is probably my favourite movie and although you wont understand every single subtle meaning or joke there, i think you will appreciate it anyway. and some of my favourite more understandable ones - samotary (loners), musime si pomahat (divided we fall)and krute radosti (cruel joys). i tried to pick bigger movies so it will be at least a bit easier for you to find them. good luck in searching :-)

It's not exactly from Czech R, Poland or Slovakia, but little more southward - from Serbia. The name is "Who's Singing Over There?" (or "Ko to tamo peva"). I think you'll have a laugh.

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I don't know many interesting Czech movies... I'm not very patriotic concerning our cinematography. ;) I even didn't like Kolja very much.

Anyway, when I tried to recall some movies which I found interesting I came to these:
- Lea (dir. by Ivan Fila) - beautiful movie about a Slovakian girl who got married
to Germany
- Krev zmizeleho - a journey across several decades of Czech history, story of a mother, then her daughter under war and post-war circumstances

I just love movies by Slovakian director Martin Sulik:
- Zahrada - "the Garden", very poetic, about love I think ;)
- Orbis pictus - a young girl travels from orphanage to her mother and meets different people
- Krajinka - 20th century history of Slovakia through the little episodes of little people

Try The Unbearable Lightness Of Being (1988), Closely Watched Trains (1966), Slavnosti Snezenek (1984), Postriziny (1981), Firemen's Ball (1967), I Served the King of England (2006), Pupendo (2003), Cozy Dens (1999), or even Amadeus (1984). Some of these are Czech movies, some are Hollywood movies with Czech directors/actors/screenwriters. You can find most of them on Amazon or Ebay. Those you cannot can probably be downloaded from the web.

Prague has also been used in many recent Hollywood actions flicks i.e. XXX, the latest James Bond, or Mission Impossible. It is a very, very photogenic city.