Věra Chytilová (born 2 February 1929, Ostrava) is an avant-garde Czech film director and pioneer of Czech cinema. Banned by the Czechoslovakian government in the 1960s, she is best known for her Czech New Wave film, Sedmikrásky (Daisies). Her 1987 film Vlčí bouda was entered into the 37th Berlin International Film Festival.

Věra Chytilová was born in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia on February 2, 1929. She had a strict Catholic upbringing. However this religious upbringing greatly influenced many of the moral questions presented in her films.

While attending college she initially studied philosophy and architecture, but abandoned these fields. She then worked as a draftsman, fashion model and as a photo re-toucher before working as a clapper girl for the Barrandov Film Studios in Prague. She then sought a recommendation from Barrandov Film Studios to study film production but was denied. However regardless of this she was then accepted into the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU) at the age of 28. While attending FAMU she studied underneath renowned film director Otakar Vavra graduating in 1962.

Miroslav Donutil (born 7 February, 1951) is a Czech theatrical, film and television actor, born in Třebíč. Since 1978 when he appeared as Hloch in Čistá řeka, Donutil has three decades of film and TV appearances. He dubbed the voice of Kevin Costner and Gérard Depardieu

Donutil grew up in Brno. His parents were enthusiastic amateur actors, and he inclined to theatre from an early age. He studied at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts (in Czech: JAMU). During his studies he already appeared in the Brno theatre Husa na provázku, where he was engaged after he graduated at JAMU in 1973. Donutil collaborated with directors Petr Scherhaufer, Eva Tálská and Zdeněk Pospíšil, and performed in approximately 50 plays in Husa na provázku. Since 1990 he has been a member of the dramatic ensemble of the National Theatre in Prague. Since 1978 he began to deal with film, and his first promising role was Nikola Šuhaj in Balada pro banditu (1978). He broke through in film at the beginning of 1990s and since that time he gradually builds up his position on the Czech film scene. In 1996 and 1997 he was awarded two TýTý television awards.

Boleslav Polívka (born 31 July 1949 in Vizovice) is a Czech film and theatre actor, mime, playwright and screenwriter. Polívka played in more than 40 films.

In 1971 Polívka graduated at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in the play Podivné odpoledne dr. Zvonka Burkeho (Strange Afternoon of Dr. Zvonek Burke) by Ladislav Smoček. In 1969 he co-founded Divadlo Husa na provázku (Goose on a String Theatre) and became one of its leading personalities. In 1993 he founded his own theater, Divadlo Bolka Polívky (Bolek Polívka Theatre) in Brno. He is one of the most important exponents of Czech mime and frequently appears with foreign theatre ensembles.

Polívka's work as writer, director and mime performer is inspired by clowning, Commedia dell'arte, and early comedy films, but he occasionally introduces voice and words into his performances, which thus cross traditional theatrical boundaries into a form of "total acting". His unique theatrical style has been widely acclaimed in the Czech Republic and beyond.

Bohumil Hrabal (Czech pronunciation: [ˈboɦumɪl ˈɦrabal]) (28 March 1914, Brno – 3 February 1997, Prague) was a Czech writer, regarded as one of the best writers of the 20th century.

Bohumil Hrabal was born in Brno (Balbínova ul. 47, Židenice district [1]) in what was then the province of Moravia in the Austro-Hungarian empire to an unmarried mother, Marie Božena Kiliánová (b. 1894-d. 10 February 1970). According to the organisers of a recent Hrabal exhibition in Brno, his biological father was “probably” Bohumil Blecha (b.1893-d, 1970), who was a year older than Marie, a friend from the neighbourhood and the son of a teacher. Marie’s parents opposed the idea of their daughter marrying Blecha, who was about to enter the imperial army[2]. Blecha served on the Italian front, before being invalided out of service[3]. Blecha’s daughter, Drahomíra Blechová-Kalvodová, says her father told her when she was 18 that Hrabal was her half-brother. Bohumil and his biological father never met formally, according to Blechová-Kalvodová. Hrabal and Blechová-Kalvodová met twice; a dedication in a picture from 1994 says: "To sister Drahomíra, Hrabal! 28. 3. 94."