CSFF25: WAVES

6:00pm Arrivals | 6:30 Content start | 6:45 Film start

Czech and Slovak Film Festival presents the monumental historical drama Waves, Czechia’s 2025 Oscar submission and Jiří Mádl’s most ambitious film to date.  Set against the turbulent months surrounding August 1968, when the Soviet-led invasion crushed the Prague Spring, Waves unfolds inside the charged halls of Czechoslovak Radio, where a group of principled journalists defy censorship to broadcast the truth. 

Drawing on real events, Mádl blends gripping political tension with intimate human storytelling, crafting a vivid portrait of a society under immense pressure. Through the eyes of young newcomer Tomáš, the film explores the moral crossroads between loyalty, fear, and courage as ordinary people are thrust into extraordinary circumstances.
Dynamic, immersive, and emotionally resonant, Waves stands as a powerful reflection on integrity, resistance, and the personal cost of standing up to authority. A major achievement for contemporary Czech cinema, it offers both a thrilling historical experience and a timeless reminder of the power - and peril - of speaking out.

Czech and Slovak with English subtitles