Festival: Time for a Czech up

Made in Prague festival Riverside Studios, London

Along with fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the ecstatic crowds which packed Prague's Wenceslas Square in early 1990 remain the most poetic image of the post-Cold War dawn. That Czechoslovakia's so-called Velvet Revolution entrusted the playwright and former dissident Vaclav Havel with the presidency - a post he holds to this day - is testament to the high regard in which the Czech Republic holds the arts. With the constraints of communism now a distant memory, Made in Prague will affirm how Czech artists have flourished in the 90s.

The Festival celebrates, for instance, the continuous tradition of innovative Czech film-making, which has seen a new generation of film makers build upon the successes of Milos Forman and Jiri Menzel. Up for show, therefore, is Jan Sverak's recent Oscar-winning Kolya, which has maintained the international presence Forman's A Blonde in Love and The Fireman's Ball forged. A year after his remarkable Conspirators of Pleasure, the festival devotes an evening to the work of animator Jan Svankmajer.

Once limited to recordings only, the world has also had a chance to get acquainted with live Czech jazz since communist travel restrictions were lifted. Artists like Jiri Stivin, Emil Viklicky and Karel Ruzicka have showed themselves steeped in the the traditions of jazz, and a series of shows will encompass everything from folk-inflected and traditional sets to freeform explorations. Jazz meets physical theatre too when mime artist Ctibor Turba performs Hanging Man, accompanied by Jiri Stivin's improvisations.

Throughout Made in Prague, Jindrich Streit will be exhibiting his ongoing photographic project "The Village is a Global World" and the festival closes with a presentation by Jiri Menzel of his classic Closely Observed Trains.

To next Wed, Dec 17. Riverside Studios, London W6 (0171-291 9929)