From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia František Vláčil February 19 1924 Český Těšín January 28 1999 Prague was a Czech film director painter and graphic artist Between 1945 and 1950 he studied esthetics and art history at Masaryk University in Brno Later he worked in various groups and ateliers eg on animated films but his main area became played film His films are well known for extraordinarily high art quality Vláčil was awarded many film prizes like the Prize of the International Film Festival 1998 in Karlovy Vary or the Czech Lion Prize for his longstanding contribution to world film culture