- Occupation
Director - Country
Czech Republic
Smržová Dagmar
War in the Memory of Women
The film focuses on six women whose lives were affected and changed by the Second World War. The documentary presnts six unique stories of five Czech and one German women who experienced the tragedies of World War II. as teenagers. Two of them were deported to concentration camps and survived the death marches, another one was involved in an anti-Nazi undeground movement and lost all her family. One of them was a German from Czech Sudetenland and was expelled from Czechoslovakia after the end of the war, despite her family manifested its strong anti-Nazi attitudes before and during the war. All these women went through the terrifying experience of being taken from their family, and were punished by the consequences of the WWII.
You´ll Understand It, Mum
Documentary film on the lives of mothers whose children took them through hell.
Saving Edwards
For the purposes of this film, Edwards is a child; a long-awaited child of a loving couple, a child struck by a terrible and fatal mistake at conception. Edwards had an extra chromosome, one more than the exact number required for the development of a healthy baby. This flaw causes severe developmental disorders that are not compatible with life. The condition was first described by American medical scientist John Alexander Edwards, hence the name Edwards Syndrome. Considering modern prenatal diagnostics, it is very uncommon for such children to be born. In the majority of cases, the pregnancy is terminated. The parents of this child decided otherwise. The film follows the struggle of the parents to save a child who was buried by many long before it was born.
The Hardest of Choices
A documentary looking at the lives of four women and their partners who have refused abortions after discovering they are expecting handicapped children. The author captures their reactions on learning of their babies' state of health, and the way in which they come to terms with the doctors' prognoses and their own feelings of hopelessness. One of the children dies before birth, another during birth, while another lives for only an hour after birth. The daughter of the fourth couple has Down's syndrome, and her mother describes how those around her reacted to the handicap. The key scene in this collective portrait, which grows into an existential drama concerning life and death, takes place at the grave of one of the dead children, on the Říp hill.
The Story of Mr. Love
“There is a major difference between Láska (Love) and láska. Some people always get it wrong but I have nothing to do with love,“ says Jiří Láska, a schizophrenic born to schizophrenic parents, on his way to a better life. A feature documentary film by Dagmar Smržová, director of the award-winning film Saving Edwards, tells the story of a gifted schizophrenic Jiří and his family. Selected out of 88 submissions, this project received the HBO Award for best documentary proposal at the 2011 Jihlava IDFF.
The film focuses on six women whose lives were affected and changed by the Second World War. The documentary presnts six unique stories of five Czech and one German women who experienced the tragedies of World War II. as teenagers. Two of them were deported to concentration camps and survived the death marches, another one was involved in an anti-Nazi undeground movement and lost all her family. One of them was a German from Czech Sudetenland and was expelled from Czechoslovakia after the end of the war, despite her family manifested its strong anti-Nazi attitudes before and during the war. All these women went through the terrifying experience of being taken from their family, and were punished by the consequences of the WWII.
You´ll Understand It, Mum
Documentary film on the lives of mothers whose children took them through hell.
Saving Edwards
For the purposes of this film, Edwards is a child; a long-awaited child of a loving couple, a child struck by a terrible and fatal mistake at conception. Edwards had an extra chromosome, one more than the exact number required for the development of a healthy baby. This flaw causes severe developmental disorders that are not compatible with life. The condition was first described by American medical scientist John Alexander Edwards, hence the name Edwards Syndrome. Considering modern prenatal diagnostics, it is very uncommon for such children to be born. In the majority of cases, the pregnancy is terminated. The parents of this child decided otherwise. The film follows the struggle of the parents to save a child who was buried by many long before it was born.
The Hardest of Choices
A documentary looking at the lives of four women and their partners who have refused abortions after discovering they are expecting handicapped children. The author captures their reactions on learning of their babies' state of health, and the way in which they come to terms with the doctors' prognoses and their own feelings of hopelessness. One of the children dies before birth, another during birth, while another lives for only an hour after birth. The daughter of the fourth couple has Down's syndrome, and her mother describes how those around her reacted to the handicap. The key scene in this collective portrait, which grows into an existential drama concerning life and death, takes place at the grave of one of the dead children, on the Říp hill.
The Story of Mr. Love
“There is a major difference between Láska (Love) and láska. Some people always get it wrong but I have nothing to do with love,“ says Jiří Láska, a schizophrenic born to schizophrenic parents, on his way to a better life. A feature documentary film by Dagmar Smržová, director of the award-winning film Saving Edwards, tells the story of a gifted schizophrenic Jiří and his family. Selected out of 88 submissions, this project received the HBO Award for best documentary proposal at the 2011 Jihlava IDFF.
Sex Education in Bohemia
Sex Education in Bohemia is a documentary comedy with elements of dark humour focusing on how Czechs learn about sexuality and how they teach their children. The film is the very first probe into a broad debate: how to deal with sex education, what specialists and institutions provide sex education and how do they teach it? This thought-provoking documentary satire explores our approach to the basic human values of love, respect and responsibility. It seems that instead of having a fixed place for these values in our lives, we often rely on sex education that gets more space than it really deserves.
Sex Education in Bohemia is a documentary comedy with elements of dark humour focusing on how Czechs learn about sexuality and how they teach their children. The film is the very first probe into a broad debate: how to deal with sex education, what specialists and institutions provide sex education and how do they teach it? This thought-provoking documentary satire explores our approach to the basic human values of love, respect and responsibility. It seems that instead of having a fixed place for these values in our lives, we often rely on sex education that gets more space than it really deserves.
She was born on 25th March 1966 in Prague, graduated from the Documentary Film Department at FAMU in Prague in 1994.
She incorporated her personal topics mainly in documentary films broadcasted by Czech Television; among others those were documentary series EYE – A view of Modern Life, Window onto Our Neighbours, EGO or From Near.
She has made two documentary films for Czech television, War in the Memory of Women and The Hardest of Choices.
She created a documentary series Father as a Mother about fathers on parental leave for the company Febio.
She has collaborated on projects for TV Nova and TV Prima as well.
Her full-length documentary film Saving Edwards premiered in autumn 2010 that tells a story about a young couple from Zlín who decided to give birth to a child about whom the doctors said that he would not survive the birth itself.