The Prague metro is one of the most important means of transportation in the Czech capital. Around 40% of the traffic volume is handled underground. Every day, around one million passengers rush through the city's tunnels on three lines, and we meet some of them in Prague's METROCOSMOS.
So we follow the self-proclaimed “Sound Hunter” Charles Rose, who uses his contact microphones to show us what the escalators in the second deepest station in the EU, Náměstí Míru, sound like from the inside. The Frenchman now inspires over 2 million followers with his ASMR soundscapes on social media.
On the journey to the next story, we discover what is probably the fastest flip book in the world. A system of LED strips installed in the tunnel that turns the windows of the subway into a screen. We are allowed to look over the shoulders of employees of the young company “EUDI” in the tunnel as they calibrate their new prototype.
But it is not only advertising technology that is constantly evolving.
The means of transport, which opened in 1974, has been undergoing continuous expansion and modernization measures ever since. We accompany the architect Anna Svarc on her journey through the construction site of a new subway line and gain exciting insights from tunnel to track construction. We discover the incredible world in which engineers and workers achieve the unimaginable.
Did you know that the tunnels in the Prague subway are also cleaned?
We take you on a ride on the so-called Cleaning Train, which starts work after closing time and removes a layer of black metal dust from the tunnel walls every week.
However, you won't notice any of this in the very clean and well-maintained passenger area of the Prague metro. While most passengers take their seats on the new or old trains, there are other, much more dangerous ways to get from A to B. We talk to two former trainsurfers who tell us what they loved about the illegal sport and, above all, why they quit the dangerous “hobby”.
Shortly before the station doors open for passengers in the morning, the “Explorer Train” makes a round of checks to ensure that there are no workers or illegal persons on the tracks. We travel with it on its journey through the empty subway system.
As in every episode, we also let the people who don't notice any of this speak. We place the passengers at the center of the story. We find out why Prague is such a city worth living in and how it is constantly repositioning itself in the field of tension between past and present, East and West.








Credits
A SERIES BY
Timo Novotny
CREATIVE PRODUCER
Sebastian Rieker
CO-AUTHORS
E.L. Petschinka
Katarzyna Kalinska
Sarah Torribio
Harald Salaun
SOUND
Jan Lakota
Michal Stolicka
Filip Slavik
MIX & MASTERING
Bernhard Schedelberger
MUSIC
Markus Kienzl (Sofa Surfers)
CAMERA
Florian Stratenwerth
Timo Novotny
ADDITIONAL CAMERA
Yana Kadurina
Sebastian Rieker
Luka Ljubicic
POST PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT
Leonard Mink
EDITING
Leonard Mink
Yannik Pföhler
Timo Novotny
EDITING ASSISTANCE
Louisa Göttelmann (STEP/HFM)
Luka Ljubicic
Tobias Dierl
VFX & COLORS
Ebo Rose
MOTION DESIGN
Ralf Ott
TYPEFACE
Nik Thönen / Binnenland
RESEARCH
Pavel Borecky
Clara Scheiner (STEP/HFM)
PRODUCERS
Gregor Streiber
Peter Janecek
Sebastian Rieker
Timo Novotny
Friedemann Hottenbacher
LINE PRODUCER
Jonathan Thiemeier
PRODUCTION ASSISTANCE
Clara Scheiner (STEP/HFM)
Steven Melzer
Paulo Muenchrath
PRODUCTION ASSISTANCE PRAGUE
Yana Kadurina
EDITORIAL BR
Petra Felber, BR
Martin Kowalczyk, BR
Sonja Scheider, BR ARTE
Katja Ferwagner, BR ARTE
EDITORIAL ARTE
Katja Dünnebacke (Arte Deutschland)
Caroline Mutz (Arte G.E.I.E.)
EDITORIAL ČT
Markéta Štinglová
Barbora Svobodová
Jakub Mahler
Daniela Šantrochová
EDITORIAL ORF
Gerald Heidegger
FUNDING
Fernsehfonds Austria
Medienboard Berlin- Brandenburg
Filmfonds Wien
CAST
Charles Rose
Anna Švarc
Tom Procházka
Milada Rezková
Anežka Čižinská
Viola Čižinská
Vojtěch Černý
Vladimir518
EPOS
Krstftb & Chcanklinn
PASSENGERS & INTERVIEWS
Matteo Clement
Eliška Novotná
Romana Šmejkalová
Jakub Jan Musli
Romana Polivkova
Natalie Golovchenko
Clara Isabella Andrews
Šárle Sdarz
Yana Fedinets
Yana Kadurina
Daniel Šabík
Stanislav Brtna
Josef Visura
& EUDI: Tomáš Soukup, Vlastimil Kotrbatý, Petr Maňas, Miloslav Kopp
DOPRAVNÍ PODNIK HL. M. PRAHY, a. s.
Daniel Šabík
Jan Štojdl
Jindřich Novodvorský
BEST BOY
Loris Novotny
DUBBING
Urs Hauck
DUB ACTORS
Gordon Piedesack
Patrick Lamb
Nina West
Mai Horlemann
Harry Kühn
Tom Vogt
THANKS TO
Onno Ehlers
Katica De Pascale
Loris Novotny
Celina Melzer
Tereza Horská
Luke Bliedtner
Svende Biere
Jennifer Nemes
Zdeněk Blaha (IDF)
Anna Kaslová (IDF)
Veronika F. Dvořáčková (IDF)
Ivana P. Miloševičová (IDF)
© INSELFILM/SEEHUND MEDIA/PLAESION FILM/INLOOPS/BR/ČT/ORF, 2024