Jan Hřebejk is nothing if not ambitious. The Prague native spent most of 2017 working on The Garden Store, a trilogy of war movies that were released just months apart from one another. All three screen back-to-back (with intermissions) on May 25 as part of San Diego’s first Czechoslovakian Film Festival. The show kicks off at the Museum of Photographic Arts at 10 am. Mr. Hřebejk will on hand to introduce all three films. (Expect a Q&A following the second movie, so dress sharp.) Nine hours is a big commitment to make, but you’re up for it. For tickets, visit eventbrite.com.

Initial reports that each third of the triptych functioned as a stand-alone were greatly exaggerated; treat them as as one would chronological segments of a whole and view accordingly. We re-enter the postwar universe of the Brünner and Rohn families exactly where we left off; their lives, at least for the time being, having reached a status quo. Otto, the deserter brother, returns from the war to find business bustling at his chichi Valentino Salon. But what with Hitler out and Stalin on the way in, tensions inside his handsome art deco home, the one with the mustard door and Crayola green piping, have reached an all-time high. The seeds of dark, unexpected laughter planted by the fumbled baby in Part One reap unexpected riches when Otto’s prankster son fills the shampoo bottles with model airplane, glue leaving three female Soviet soldiers smoother on top than Mussolini. More compelling (and narratively compact) than Family Friend, thanks in large part to the brilliant lead acting work of Macháček, who, by the time it’s over, has all but depleted the life out of Otto. — Scott Marks