There is something particularly compelling about historical films that place us not in government offices or military headquarters, but among ordinary people who suddenly realise that their everyday work has become politically dangerous. Waves (Vlny), directed by Czech actor-turned-filmmaker Jiří Mádl, does exactly that. Set around Czechoslovak Radio during the Prague Spring and the Soviet-led invasion of 1968, it transforms microphones, telephones, tape recorders and broadcasting rooms into the frontline of a struggle over who gets to tell the truth.
It is also an unusually accessible historical drama. Mádl approaches a complex and specifically Czechoslovak episode through the rhythms of a political thriller, making Waves tense and immediate without losing sight of the real journalists whose work inspired it. That combination clearly connected with audiences at home: after its world premiere at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, it won the festival’s Audience Award and later became a major Czech box-office success.
| Film Title | Movie Details |
|---|---|
| Country | Czech Republic |
| Year | 2024 |
| Genre | Historical Drama / Political Thriller |
| Runtime | 131 min |
| Director | Jiří Mádl |
| Main Actors | Vojtěch Vodochodský, Táňa Pauhofová, Stanislav Majer, Vojtěch Kotek, Marika Šoposká |
The story takes us to Prague in the late 1960s, when a period of political liberalisation is beginning to challenge the restrictions imposed by Czechoslovakia’s communist regime. At its centre is Tomáš, a young technician whose priorities are initially much more personal than political. Responsible for his younger brother Pavel, he is wary of anything that could place their already fragile lives in danger.
Circumstances lead him to a job at the International News Office of Czechoslovak Radio, where he enters an environment increasingly willing to test the limits of what can be reported. Under the leadership of journalist Milan Weiner, the newsroom becomes a place where professional responsibility and political resistance begin to overlap.
Mádl wisely gives us time to become familiar with this world before history overtakes it. We see conversations, disagreements and the everyday mechanics of broadcasting. The journalists are not introduced as heroic figures preparing to stand against tanks; they are professionals trying to understand how far they can push against censorship and how much they are prepared to risk in doing so.
Knowing what happened in August 1968 creates tension long before the invasion itself arrives.
One of the most interesting aspects of Waves is its understanding of journalism as something physical. Information has to be obtained, verified, recorded and transmitted. Someone must answer a telephone. Someone must operate the equipment. Someone must decide whether a report can be broadcast. Once political power attempts to control those processes, every apparently mundane action acquires another meaning.
That makes the radio station an inspired setting. Mádl repeatedly brings us into cramped rooms filled with desks, wires, telephones and recording equipment. Voices can travel beyond the walls even when the people producing them cannot. As the political situation deteriorates, this becomes increasingly important: physical spaces can be occupied, but information is much harder to contain.
The film therefore avoids presenting resistance exclusively through demonstrations or direct confrontation. Speaking, recording and broadcasting become political acts.
There is an obvious contemporary relevance to all this, but Waves does not need to insist upon it. Questions surrounding censorship, propaganda, misinformation and the independence of journalists feel familiar enough without the screenplay drawing explicit parallels with the present.
Mádl also knows how to turn this historical material into an effective thriller. Waves moves quickly despite its 131-minute running time. Information is withheld and revealed strategically, surveillance creates constant unease, and private conversations can suddenly become dangerous. Tomáš provides an effective route into this world because, like many viewers outside the Czech Republic, he initially stands somewhat apart from the political environment surrounding the journalists.
The optimism of the Prague Spring is essential precisely because we know how vulnerable it is. There is an increasingly painful contrast between the possibility of a freer society and the political machinery preparing to suppress it.
When Warsaw Pact forces invade Czechoslovakia in August 1968, the tensions established during the first part of the film acquire a different urgency. The newsroom is no longer merely testing the boundaries of censorship. Broadcasting itself becomes a form of resistance.
The historical Czechoslovak Radio played an important role during the invasion, continuing to transmit information while Soviet forces attempted to gain control of communications. Mádl uses that struggle as the dramatic centre of the film without allowing the historical importance of the events to overwhelm the people experiencing them.
This is where Tomáš becomes particularly interesting. He is neither an obvious dissident nor a committed political activist when we first meet him. His instincts are primarily protective: he wants to look after his brother and avoid unnecessary danger.
That distinction allows Waves to explore one of the more uncomfortable questions surrounding life under an authoritarian system: what happens when protecting the people you love requires compromises that may endanger somebody else?
Vojtěch Vodochodský handles that ambiguity convincingly. Tomáš spends much of the earlier part of the film observing rather than leading, and his uncertainty helps communicate how intimidating the system surrounding these characters actually is. His development feels more persuasive because Mádl does not turn him immediately into a conventional hero.
Around him, however, Waves gradually becomes an ensemble piece. Stanislav Majer brings considerable authority to Milan Weiner, while Táňa Pauhofová is excellent as journalist Věra Šťovíčková. The supporting characters give the newsroom the feeling of a genuine professional community rather than simply a collection of historical figures placed there to explain events to the audience.
This also prevents the film from becoming an illustrated history lesson. The political context matters enormously, but so do friendships, rivalries, professional pride and fear. These are people who happen to find themselves working in journalism at a moment when journalism suddenly carries enormous consequences.
Visually, Waves avoids making the 1960s feel excessively polished. Its production design, costumes and cinematography create a convincing period atmosphere without turning every frame into an exhibition of historical detail. Offices feel occupied rather than decorated, streets feel lived in, and the broadcasting equipment has a physical weight that becomes surprisingly important to the story.
Mádl also integrates archival material with his reconstructions, strengthening the connection between drama and historical memory. As the invasion unfolds, the distinction between historical thriller and something closer to reportage becomes increasingly blurred.
The editing is especially effective during these sequences. Telephones ring, reports arrive, broadcasts are prepared and information changes hands while events outside accelerate beyond anyone’s control. The tension does not come solely from what is happening in the streets, but from the race to communicate it.
That makes the film’s quieter moments equally important. A microphone or telephone can suddenly carry as much dramatic weight as a weapon because communication itself has become contested territory.
The film’s strong ensemble received considerable recognition in the Czech Republic. At the 2025 Czech Lion Awards, Waves won six awards, including Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay for Jiří Mádl. Stanislav Majer won Best Supporting Actor, Táňa Pauhofová received Best Supporting Actress, and the film also won for sound.
Its success had begun months earlier at the 58th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, where Waves had its world premiere in July 2024 and won the Právo Audience Award. The enthusiastic festival response was followed by an exceptional theatrical run in the Czech Republic, where the film eventually passed one million admissions.
The Czech Film and Television Academy subsequently selected Waves as the country’s submission for Best International Feature Film at the 97th Academy Awards.
It came remarkably close to a nomination.
The Academy included the film among the 15-title shortlist for Best International Feature, placing it alongside films such as I’m Still Here, Flow, The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Dahomey and Kneecap. Although Waves did not ultimately reach the final five nominees, its presence on the shortlist gave Mádl’s film considerable international visibility.
Perhaps the greatest achievement of Waves, however, is much simpler: it makes a story about journalism genuinely cinematic.
There are tanks and crowds, political upheaval and moments of obvious danger, but some of its most effective sequences revolve around whether a voice will reach the other end of a transmission.
The people inside Czechoslovak Radio cannot control the political forces transforming their country. They cannot stop an invasion. What they can control, at least temporarily, is whether people know what is happening.
At just over two hours, Waves is ambitious and occasionally conventional in the way it shapes history into a political thriller, but its accessibility is also one of its strengths. You do not need extensive knowledge of the Prague Spring to become involved in Tomáš’s dilemma or in the increasingly dangerous work taking place inside the radio station.
And perhaps that helps explain why the film resonated so strongly with Czech audiences. Waves is rooted in a very specific moment in Czechoslovak history, but the questions it raises are anything but historical: what is truthful information worth, who controls it, and how much are ordinary people prepared to risk to keep it alive?
For a film built around radio, Waves understands remarkably well the power of being heard.
