It Doesn't End With Departure

Looking in the mirror in the morning reveals a lot. What should you wear to school, where your teacher engages in double entedres, to supper with your parents, where you're constantly pestered not only about your appearance, and to work, where you can't hide even in a sack...?

Olga comes to the Czech Republic to be with her husband, who began working here some time ago for an IT company. She arrives with great expectations, back home they see her move as a victory and she herself is resolved to deal with everything successfully. But - her new environment isn't exactly friendly, plus her Russian accent doesn't exactly help make new friends …

Viera is a very capable field worker - she helps her clients quickly and effectively, and is known not only among them as having a friendly and kind approach. But how will the non-Roma around her come to terms with her working methods, which they consider unusual, especially when thanks to them Viera is successful in her profession. And how will she come to terms with other differences that are naturally brought by Viera's life in a Roma family and community? And what do the neighbours in her building think?!?

Answers to these and other questions are given the the theatre of the oppressed, which was created with a group of male and female Roma over the age of 40.

Nastya leaves Crimea prior to the occupation for a scholarship residence in the Czech Republic. For her, the subsequent occupation means not only loss of her home. Plus her mother tongue is Russian, which doesn't exactly make her stay abroad easier...

Nadia and Max meet by accident at the doctor's office, nature takes its course, and gradually it starts to look like a lasting and serious relationship. But against the backdrop of the relationship and the Covid pandemic, everyone is dealing with different issues. Max's parents can't imagine Max seeing a girl that isn't Vietnamese, and Nadia doesn't have a residency permit. Thanks to the pandemic, it's been delayed, which is something Max is finding very har to accept …

Silva and Annie are friends. They've known each other since they were children, and attend the same school. Nevertheless, their lives are different in many respects. Although the two friends don't worry about any differences and focus solely on what they have in common, those around them see things differently. For this story takes place in Ústí – in a town where you can cut the tension with a knife... Will the girls succeed in maintaining their friendship, or will they let themselves be ground down by their merciless environment? And is there any way they can be helped?

Lucy has been living on the street for several years now. Her daughter is growing up in a children's home. Can Lucy take a proffered helping hand and change her life, or is hopelessness stronger?

Jachim sets off with his school chums and with a favourite teacher for a weekend getaway at a cottage. But even one's most favourite teachers can have their dark sides …

Emma keeps experiencing the fact that she's not good enough for anyone. At school, at home, everywhere. Finally she meets a group of people in which she's able to find her place and decides for a change. But even friends can sometimes let you down, and in the Prague of one's dreams of one can encounter things that make your head spin

Fanny works at a non-profit organization teaching refugee families Czech, but it doesn't seem enough to her, she wants to change all of society. But how? Her friend tells her she should attend a demonstration. During the day Fanny tries to convince those around her to join her or at least to do something, a little. But …

Klara returns home to the Czech Republic after several months abroad. But in the meantime much has happened here: the events in Žatec, the Dalai Lama's visit, the celebration of what would have been Václav Havel's eightieth birthday... Klara is full of energy and resolve to do something, to make something happen, to change something. She has an excellent idea, but her friends start to help her implement it, and they have a completely different perspective on it. The whole story thus begins to take on a new direction...

We go back in time a few years, when the first Roma LGBT Workshop was held in Prague under the aegis of the Ara Art association, which was the first-ever organized meeting of LGBT Roma in history. At the end of the several-day workshop, David, the head instructor, organized a joint evening visit to a popular Prague gay club. Everyone is looking forward to it, and for some of the participants it will be their first-ever visit to a gay club. Nobody is expecting that they could encounter an unpleasant problem at the entrance …

Lin is a very talented high school student and is very good at drawing. But she has two problems - he classmates don't accept her, and her parents are convinced that she should be either a doctor or a lawyer.

Hami is attending language school because she didn't pass her university admittance exams. She studies a lot, but she's also started going out with Honza and would like to spend the weekend in the mountains with him and his friends. But for her parents that's unacceptable - no decent Vietnamese girl does something like that …

Twenty-year-old Pepa, a first-year student at Czech Technical University, is getting ready to go to a party. A popular DJ is playing at a popular club, their entire gang is going. His friends are already inside, the night is young, the mood is good, the atmosphere full of expectations of an excellent party. But to Pepa's surprise, the bouncer at the entrance tells him that he won't let him in because "they're full"... Will he be helped by his friends, the club manager, or the police who've been called? And why can't Pepa actually go inside? Are they really full? And what can one do so it isn't "full”?

Marie is a talented fifteen-year-old Grade nine student from a small town near Liberec whose dream is to attend a conservatory. She's working hard to prepare, but everything seems to be working against her. Her hard-working mother has no understanding for her artistic tendencies and insists that Marie should first learn "something proper", she doesn't fit in with the other girls at school, her teacher hates her, and finally a lady guidance counsellor comes with her tests and graphs to determine the right future for everyone. Does Marie have to accept the pigeonhole chosen for her by the guidance counsellor's tests and by those around her?

Barbara is graduating soon. Her parents are going abroad due to her father's job and are leaving her with her grandmother, whom nobody dares disobey. Her mother needs her little Barbara to be a good and sensible girl and not cause problems. Grandma, on the other hand, needs to be in control of the family and to have her little Henry, Barbara's father, at home under her roof. Which of them will win? What price will Barbara pay? And is this OK?

Seventeen-year-old Jitka is attending secondary medical school and is having a hard time coming to terms with the fact that she's the only red student in a class full of blue girls. As if it weren't enough that at school she's subjected to ridicule and unpleasant remarks regarding the colour of her hair, and also encounters rejection during her hospital work experience. But then new hope arrives - an offer of a work term in America for red students. Will Jitka be able to leave everything behind and go? And what do her "friends" think? And couldn't it all take place differently?

Wendy is in her last year at the Faculty of Law, the older of two sisters from a decent blue small-town family and her father's "iron in the fire". She is destined to take over the family tradition of practising law, to have a career, and make money. Wendy obediently marches toward her predetermined future until she meets young, handsome, and fun Mira. But in Wendy's father's eyes, none of his positive attributes can outweigh the fact that he's red. How will it probably end up for Wendy? And could it also end up otherwis?