Gentle Brawler is a powerful and inspiring documentary about Czech judoka Lukáš Krpálek, whose journey to Olympic victory is much more than a story of sporting success. The film reveals not only Krpálek’s rigorous training and unbreakable will, but also his personal struggles, life losses and inner conflicts that have shaped his path to the top.

In 90 minutes filled with emotion and tension, viewers are taken behind the scene of elite sport and into the very heart of an athlete who’s never settled for mediocrity. The film intertwines athletic performance with profound psychological and philosophical questions that resonate far beyond the world of sport. Krpálek’s journey is not limited to the judo tatami, but captures also his relationship with Japanese culture and the philosophy of the discipline that has shaped him.

Through an authentic portrayal of training sessions, matches and personal stories – combined with interviews with Lukáš, his family, coaches, friends, and even his opponents – the film offers a fascinating insight into coping with the pressure, loss and expectations that accompany the pursuit of great dreams. It is a story of sacrifice, perseverance and, above all, steadfast human strength and determination.

Gentle Brawler is not just for sports fans. It is a film for anyone seeking inspiration in stories of willpower, personal growth and overcoming life’s obstacles. This documentary takes viewers on an unforgettable journey that speaks to the young, to families and to all those who are drawn to powerful human stories. Prepare for a film that will captivate and inspire you, showing that true strength doesn’t come only from the body, but also from the spirit and the determination that leads us to overcome even the greatest challenges.

GENTLE BRAWLER

In the summer of 2024, Zika shot his long-awaited second feature film, The Healing Effects of Self-Deception, based on the famous play Enigma Variations by French playwright Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt, which has been translated to more than 50 languages.

Love is both the cause and the reason why Nobel Prize–winning writer Abel Znorko lives far from people and civilization. He hides from love, tries to escape it, to deny its power. In a remote village, in his luxurious estate surrounded by forests and meadows, he indulges in pleasures while drowning in self-pity. Above all, he keeps thinking of the woman he once loved passionately and with whom he corresponded for years after their breakup – until the day her replies stopped coming. His routine is soon disrupted by an unusual visitor: a highly attractive man with a strong touch of feminine energy, claiming to be Nicolas Gobert, a journalist from Strasbourg. He wants to interview the writer, who normally never gives interviews, yet this time agrees. The topic of the interview is supposed to be Znorko’s latest and most acclaimed book, Denied Love, a novel composed of passionate love letters dedicated to someone with the initials H. M. However, the interview a mere pretext. What is Gobert’s true motive? What is the connection between him and Znorko? Or, perhaps, between him and the woman from the novelist’s latest book? And above all, why has the misanthropic egotist who despises journalists suddenly agreed to meet one and answer his questions?

Who is hidden behind the initials H. M.? What else is the writer concealing? And how much does the journalist really know? The questions become too many for the hypocritical Znorko to keep his mask intact. Mysteries hazier than a fogged mirror stretch across the entire day and evening, gradually being uncovered by the two men with both biting irony and disarming sensitivity. What starts as a routine encounter quickly turns into a cruel game of truth. These two men, with utterly different views not only on love and sexuality but on life itself, exchange blows like boxers in an imaginary ring, only to reach shocking revelations that bring them to the very edge of life. To the brink of thoughts about being or not being, confronted with knowledge they must carry for the rest of their lives.

The film is expected to premiere in February 2026.

THE HEALING POWER OF SELF-DECEPTION

In early 2024, Czech Television premiered a feature documentary about world-renowned fashion designer Blanka Matragi. The woman we seem to know everything about, and yet nothing at all. Her denied childhood, accelerated coming of age, her unique work, the devastating years of war in Lebanon, her artistic talent and skills, lifelong love, personal experience with the Arab world, her radical views and attitudes – each of these could be the subject of a standalone film. Yet Adolf Zika chose to bring them together in a single feature documentary filmed over the course of 3 years, which went on to achieve one of the highest viewership ratings for a documentary in the history of Czech Television.

Two sentences from Adolf Zika’s original concept capture the essence of Blanka Matragi’s remarkable personality better than anything else. “My greatest satisfaction in life is a job well done.” This statement reflects, almost describes, the daunting struggle and relentless race against time from which beauty is ultimately born, be it in the form of iconic dresses, glass sculptures, or luxury jewelry, created in her studio.

The second sentence conveys the reality of the American dream with chilling precision: “A fairy tale ceases to be a fairy tale the moment you become part of it.” Blanka Matragi has reached the absolute pinnacle of her profession; she is unsurpassed, admirable, almost flawless. What an ordinary student from Světlá nad Sázavou achieved truly resembles a fairy tale – one that, however, came at a cost.

Blanka

In 2023, Adolf Zika shot Alžběta, a film portraying the life of one of the most distinctive photographic personalities of the new generation – a female reporter and documentarist devoted to war photojournalism. Alžběta Jungrová has photographed in Gaza, on a heroin market in Pakistan, in a shelter for HIV-positive children in Bangladesh, as well as in a Czech women’s prison.

The great-granddaughter of one of the most prominent Czech journalists and publicists, Ferdinand Peroutka, is in many ways an original soul. She reflects the suffering of nearly the whole world, solitude and a distinctly female perspective on evil, capturing all of this through her camera. She says that only one photograph in a hundred thousand is truly good.

Alžběta

One of the distinctive qualities of director Adolf Zika is the ability to recognize talent in modest people who seemingly do not surpass their surroundings. This also happened in the case of the young dancer and artist Kristián Mensa, who caught his eye literally at first sight. He immediately began working on the film script, but the global crisis in the form of the onset of the Covid-19 disease significantly affected these preparations. Now we are happy to announce that the film Mr. KRISS was completed the following year and had a successful premiere on June 8, 2021 on the Czech Television ČT2 program.

Adolf Zika managed to put the essentials of Kristián Mensa's amazing personality into the 58-minute documentary, namely, above all, the humility, modesty and fascinating calm of a man who had to overcome many obstacles and handicaps and yet reached the absolute top in his actions. When asked whether he is more of a dancer or an artist, Kristián answers that he draws with his body while dancing and dances on paper with his drawings. And you will see all of this with your own eyes in the film. Its excellent execution is also evidenced by its very high rating on the website csfd.cz.

Story, screenplay, direction: Adolf Zika

Mr. Kriss

The corona crisis in the spring of 2020 significantly affected the lives of all people, not only in the Czech Republic. Director Adolf Zika filmed a unique and historically valuable documentary called Spring in Emergency about how our republic lived throughout the state of emergency. He looked at the whole situation from a completely different perspective than we know it from the media and created a visually interesting and original view of how the epidemic, quarantine and state of emergency changed us.

The entire film was created on the fly from the first to the last day of the declared state of emergency and features ordinary residents of various age groups, experts on the issue of epidemics, teachers, singers, athletes and many other people who are somehow affected by the state of emergency.

How did hysteria and panic affect us? Were all the measures justified? Will the world ever return to normal? The film reflects on many of the questions that surround us and shows the entire epidemic as an interesting test of the current global system.

Story, screenplay, direction: Adolf Zika

Spring in Emergency

We are delighted to finally announce that after more than six months of intensive work, Adolf Zika has completed a 30-part documentary series for Czech Television commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution.

The first episode of this unique mini-documentary series, Velvet Footprints, or “30 Years of Freedom in 30 Images”, will premiere on November 17, 2019, on Czech Television’s ČT1 channel at 8:00 p.m. — symbolically on the anniversary itself. This episode will also launch a month-long “docu-marathon,” with all thirty episodes broadcast consecutively, one each day, on ČT1 right after the evening news.

Story, screenplay, direction: Adolf Zika

Velvet Footprints

A documentary film Robert Vano – The Story of a Man is completely different from other biographies of important people of our time because his approach to life has never been controlled by strong will and determination which are common factors for most important people. The viewers thus meet someone they can easily empathize with which is not so easy with other prominent people.

Story, screenplay, directed by: Adolf Zika

www.robertvanofilm.com