Prague-based production outfit Cineart Production is developing the next feature from veteran Czech filmmaker Vera Chytilova - the $450,000 (CKR15m) Expulsion From Eden - which is set to shoot this summer.

The project is a tragi-comedy revolving around a medical doctor who is given money by the Russian mafia to make a low-budget film. Cineart's Viktor Schwarz is producing the project and currently seeking co-production finance.

Chytilova was banned from film-making for long periods under Communist rule in Czechoslovakia, but directed groundbreaking features such as The Apple Game in 1976, which starred Jiri Menzel as a gynecologist, Panel Story in 1979 and The Jester And The Queen in 1987. She also clashed with the post-Communist authorities which made it difficult for her to find finance for her films. Her most recent feature was 1998's Traps, Traps and Little Traps.