Waves

"Waves" (Vlny, 2024) is a Czech-Slovak historical thriller you can watch online on iFILM. Director Jiří Mádl reconstructs the years around the Prague Spring: the period when journalists at Czechoslovak Radio began airing what the party had forbidden, and the secret police — StB — moved to stop them. Vojtěch Vodochodský plays Tomáš, who arrives as a technician and finds himself at the center of a newsroom running a dangerous experiment in honest broadcasting.

His younger brother Pavel (Ondřej Stupka) has gotten tangled in underground student activity, and that becomes leverage: Tomáš can sign a cooperation agreement with the StB, or he can let Pavel face the consequences alone. Rock and roll on the airwaves, protests in the streets, informers in the building. The choice isn't a metaphor — it has a deadline.

Mádl keeps the tone measured and close, which makes the system's pressure feel real rather than theatrical. For viewers who found "The Lives of Others" or "Ida" compelling, this runs on the same frequency. Stream "Waves" online on iFILM.