El coro de Praga: Film Exposes Silence Around Sexual Abuse in Czech Choir

The film 'El coro de Praga' (The Prague Choir), directed and written by Ondřej Provazník, premiered at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, where it won the Europa Cinemas Label Award and a Special Jury Mention for actress Kateřina Falbrová. The movie, set in early 1990s Czechoslovakia, follows Karolina, a young woman who joins a prestigious girls' choir, where she is manipulated by the demanding director. The narrative is based on the real-life 'Bambini di Praga' scandal, which came to light in 2004 when the choir's director, Bohumil Kulínský Jr., was arrested. He was later convicted and imprisoned in 2009 for five and a half years for sexually abusing nearly fifty girls between 1984 and 2004. The film highlights the culture of silence and abuse of power within elite artistic circles, as well as the complicity of adults who failed to act. The choir, founded in 1973, ceased operations in 2011 due to the scandal. The film also received an award for its protagonist at the BCN Film Fest in Spain. It is a Czech-Slovak co-production from 2025, running 106 minutes, and will be distributed in Spain by A ContraCorriente and Sherlock Films.