Feature films
Gentle Fighter 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 Fighter 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.
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.
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.
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.
Jednou z výrazných vlastností režiséra Adolfa Ziky je schopnost rozpoznat talent u skromných lidí, kteří zdánlivě své okolí nijak nepřevyšují. Tak se tomu stalo také v případě mladého tanečníka a výtvarníka Kristiána Mensy, který ho zaujal doslova na první pohled. Začal okamžitě pracovat na scénáři filmu, ale do těchto příprav výrazně zasáhla celosvětová krize v podobě nástupu nemoci Covid-19. Nyní s radostí oznamujeme, že již v dalším roce se film Mr. KRISS podařilo dokončit a měl úspěšnou premiéru 8.6.2021 na programu České televize ČT2.
Adolfu Zikovi se podařilo do 58 minut dokumentu vložit to podstatné z úžasné osobnosti Kristiána Mensy, tedy především pokoru, skromnost a fascinující klid člověka, který musel překonat mnoho mindráků a handicapů a přesto se ve svém konání dostal na absolutní špičku. Na otázku zda je více tanečník nebo výtvarník odpovídá Kristián, že při tanci kreslí svým tělem a tančí po papíře svými kresbami. A to všechno ve filmu uvidíte na vlastní oči. O jeho skvělém provedení svědčí mino jiné také velmi vysoké hodnocení na webu csfd.cz.
Koronakrize na jaře 2020 ovlivnila významně život všech lidí nejen v České republice. O tom, jak naše republika žila po celou dobu nouzového stavu, natočil režisér Adolf Zika jedinečný a historický cenný dokument s názvem Jaro v nouzi. Podíval se na celou situaci z úplně jiného pohledu, než ji známe z médií a vytvořil vizuálně zajímavý a originální pohled na to, jak nás epidemie, karanténa a stav nouze změnil.
Celý film vznikal za pochodu od prvního do posledního dne vyhlášeného stavu nouze a vystupují v něm běžní obyvatelé z různých věkových skupin, odborníci na problematiku epidemii, pedagogové, zpěváci, sportovci a mnoho další lidí, kterých se stav nouze nějak dotýká.
Jak nás ovlivnila hysterie a panika? Byla všechna opatření oprávněná? Vrátí se svět ještě někdy do normálních kolejí? Snímek se zamýšlí nad spoustou otázek, které nás obklopují a ukazuje celou epidemii jako zajímavý test současného globálního systému.
S velikou radostí vám konečně můžeme oznámit, že po více jak půl roční intenzivní práci, Adolf Zika dokončil 30ti dílný dokumentární cyklus pro Českou televizi k třiceti letům výročí sametové revoluce.
První díl unikátního seriálu mini-dokumentů s názvem SAMETOVÉ STOPY, aneb ""30 let svobody ve 30ti obrazech"" premiérově odvysílá Česká televize symbolicky 17 listopadu 2019 na ČT1 ve 20:00. Tento díl také odstartuje měsíční ""doku-maratón"", jelikož všech třicet dílů uvidíte v řadě za sebou, každý den, vždy na ČT1 po zprávách, po dvacáté hodině.
- feature length documentary film
- film byl vybrán na mezinárodní filmový festival "Art Film Fest Košice" do sekce "Variety Select: Art Films" – výběr amerických kritiku filmů o umění
- story, screenplay, directed by: Adolf Zika
- camera: Tomáš Pavelek, Jan Pivoňka, Adolf Zika, Zdeněk Dvořák
- sound: Pavel Dvořák
- producer: Jindřich Ullrich, Adolf Zika, Pavel Rejchrt
- cast: Robert Vano a další..
- feature length documentary film
- Celovečerní dokumentární film, který přesahuje rámec sportovního dokumentu. Neobyčejný příběh obyčejného kluka z Jihlavy, který se naprostým omylem dostal ke sportu, jenž nebyl v jeho původním plánu.
- story, screenplay, directed by: Adolf Zika
- camera: Adolf Zika, Michal Černý, Zdeněk Dvořák, Štěpán Hovorka, Zdeněk Kamrla, Roman Jaroš
- sound: Pavel Dvořák
- producer: Adolf Zika, Pavel Rejchrt
- cast: Lukáš Krpálek a další..
- a feature length film
- story, screenplay, directed by: Adolf Zika
- Director of Photography: Jan Cabalka, Mark Bliss
- Sound Editor: Pavel Dvořák
- Producer: Tomas Loewy, Adolf Zika, Jiří Matela
- Cast: Tomáš Hajíček, Vica Kerekes, Jana Kolesárová, Martin Stránský, Vladimír Javorský, Oldřich Navrátil, Chantal Poullain, Zuzana Bydžovská, Richard Müller, Jakub Kohák, Stanislav Zindulka, Zdeněk Podhůrský, Miki Křen, Branislav Bystriansky, Kryštof Michal, Stanislava Ziková, Robert Vano a další..
- feature length documentary film
- opening film of the 16th Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival 2012
- theatrical distributon by Falcon, 2012
- story, screenplay, director: Adolf Zika
- editing: Alois Fišárek
- sound: Jiří Klenka
- music: Petr Brant, Petr Roškaňuk
- camera: citizens of the Czech Republic
- producer: Pavel Doležal, Adolf Zika
- co-producer: Czech TV, RWE
trailer poster
- feature length documentary film
- selected to participate at the 14 festivals of the "World FICTS Challenge 2012"
- Official Selection of the ‘Sport Movies & TV 2010 – 28th Milano International FICTS Festival’
- story, screenplay, director: Adolf Zika
- camera: Robert Bily, Jiri Krenek, Adolf Zika
- producer: Antonin Charouz
trailer poster
- feature length documentary film
- Winner of THE GLASS EYE AWARD (BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM) at the EUROfEST 2008 in Montreal, Canada
- theatrical distribution by Palace Pictures, 2007
- story, screenplay, director: Adolf Zika
- camera: Jan Barton, Robert Bily
- US co-producer: Thomas Charles Sedivy
trailer
- team video
- director and camera: Robert Bily
- producer: Adolf Zika
- graphic design: Marcel Musil
- theatrical distribution by Bonton film, 2001
- directed by David Beranek
- camera: Jan Barton
- producer: Adolf Zika
- featuring: Bara Seidlova, Martin Trnavsky, Jiri Tomek