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Frank (Hynek Čermák), a native New Yorker, acquires an ancient family mansion - Kostka Castle - thanks to his aristocratic ancestors. After more than forty years, the descendant of emigrants is about to make a grand return to Bohemia with his daughter Marie (Yvona Stolařová) and his vivacious wife Vivien (Tatiana Dyková). The new aristocrats are unfamiliar with the local conditions and unenchanted with Czech reality; they know their former homeland and castle life only from the ancient stories of their relatives. The matters connected with the return of the property are solved for them by their lawyer Benda (Vojtěch Kotek). Upon their arrival, the family discovers that the castle is in a state of gradual decay and aloof from all social events. The only permanent inhabitants of Kostka are the backward castellan Josef (Martin Pechlát), the sharp-tongued housekeeper Mrs. Tichá (Eliška Balzerová) and the hypochondriac maintenance man Krása (Pavel Liška). While the Kostka family is slowly waking up from the sleep of the post-revolutionary 1990s, the Kostka family faces a difficult choice: whether to sell the mansion built by generations and return to America, or try to save Kostka Castle. The film is based on the book of the same name by Evžen Bocek.
Milotice Chateau
The home chateau of the castellan and author of the book Evžen Bocek is a uniquely preserved complex of Baroque buildings and garden architecture. The castle installation offers a glimpse into the lifestyle and customs of the last owners of the Seilern-Aspang family.
The last private holders Milotice Castle was the Seilern family, whose property was confiscated on the basis of Benes' decrees. The chateau was opened to the public in 1948. From the mid-1960s onwards, the interior was renovated. In 1974, the new installation was completed and offered visitors a stylised tour route, accentuating the Baroque era, which was the most socially significant for Milotice.
In 2005, the interiors of the Milotica Chateau underwent changes, which were aimed at restoring the representative spaces of the chateau to the way they were in the first half of the 20th century, when the chateau was occupied by the Seilern-Aspang family. A tour of the interiors is also a glimpse into the everyday life of the castle under its last private owners.
Castle Rájec nad Svitavou
The classical chateau of the French type was built by members of the noble Salm family in 1763-1769 according to the plans of the French architect Isidore Amand Canavel. The interiors of the chateau are distinguished by the richness of the furnishings, especially the extensive collection of oriental porcelain and prints, and the collection of crystal goblets from the Mannerist period.
State Castle Rájec nad Svitavou is a national cultural monument located on an elevation in the immediate vicinity of the town of Rájec-Jestřebí and bearing the name of the formerly independent village of Rájce nad Svitavou. It belongs to the architectural jewels of Moravia and is an eloquent and at the same time exceptional example of a representative rural residence in the style of the second half of the 18th century. It is owned by the state (administered by the National Heritage Institute) and is open to the public.
Evžen Boček is the longest serving castellan of the 20th century, he has been working at Milotice Castle for over 27 years. The castle was filmed in the castle's kitchen, which the castellan preserved as it was for the film. Filming also took place in the fresco hall, in the library, in the billiard room and in the courtyard. However, the exteriors of the Kostka castle had to be found elsewhere by the filmmakers. They needed a snowy landscape and a ruined castle facade, neither of which Milotice, with its beautifully repaired facade and setting in the sunny landscape of South Moravia, offers.
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