Jindřich Polák

Jindřich Polák (1925–2003), a legend of Czech sci-fi and children's movies, got his start in the second half of the 1940s as an assistant director on the films of Otakar Vávra and the creative duo of Ján Kadár and Elmar Klos.

He debuted as an independent filmmaker with the feature-length adventure movie Death in the Saddle (1958), also writing the screenplay as he did for most of his pictures. His subsequent work is made up mainly of genre films – the science-fiction movie Icarus XB 1 (1963), the war drama Riders in the Sky (1968), and the detective story Hitchhiking Tragedy (1979). In his film and television career he has also focused on younger audiences, creating the series and movies "Pan Tau" (1969–1978), "The Visitors" (1981–1983), Lucy, the Menace of the Street (1980, 1984), and The Octopuses from the Second Floor (1986). His work was repeatedly awarded at a variety of festivals.

MFF Karlovy Vary