The SFI Co-produces Films and TV Series

The Slovak Film Institute acted as co-producer in the production of a number of films and television series in 2014, some of which even went into film distribution. These were the full-length feature film In Silence (V tichu) and the documentary The Lyricist (Lyrik). In January 2015, the documentary Return to the Burning House (Návrat do horiaceho domu) was premièred in cinemas and in April the film portrait of costume designer Milan Čorba will be screened in cinemas.

In March last year the documentary The Lyricist made by director Arnold Kojnok was given its première at the Febiofest International Film Festival. It concerns the historian Ján Mlynárik, a signatory of Charter 77, who was persecuted for his political and publishing activities. The communist secret police (State Security) spied on him; in their files he was nicknamed the Lyricist, thereby giving the film its title. In the documentary, Mlynárik reveals the trials and tribulations of his life but, at the same time, his account creates a map of the bigger history of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It is not just his personal memories that are remarkable but, in particular, their combination with the knowledgeable description of the political context and interpretation of important historical events as well as the influence of personalities within the power structures.

Last year, The Lyricist was one of the films that was placed in cinemas not by distribution companies but by the producers of the work themselves. However, that was not the case for the feature film In Silence directed by Zdeněk Jiráský. The filmmakers chose the topic of the Holocaust but they tried to express it in an innovative manner. They eschewed the traditional method of dialogue interactions between the characters; instead, the audiences hear the inner monologues of the protagonists. And music gets quite a lot of space which also relates to the fact that the film focuses on Jewish musicians, singers, composers and dancers. The first part of the film consists of idyllic scenes of their lives before the war, whilst the second part is an incursion in the conversely dark period of concentration camps. Notes by the musicologist Agáta Schindlerová served as the basis for the film. She mapped out the destinies of Jewish musicians during World War 2.

The documentary series The First (Prvá), which was also co-produced by the SFI, was premièred on the Slovak public-service television at the end of the year. The series presents portraits of women personalities from the history of Slovakia who, in their period, stood out with an unusual degree of self-fulfilment which helped them to achieve many a success. “We came up with the project The First together with editor Alexandra Gojdičová and producer Barbara Janišová Feglová because we discovered that very little is known about women in our history. As if history were mainly the history of men… In addition to what they became leading figures in, we open the topic of the position of women in our society and we look into history from the perspective of the lives of selected women,” explains the director, screenwriter and author of the idea and concept of the series, Zuzana Liová. Four episodes were broadcast at the end of the year and the beginning of 2015, dedicated to Magda Husáková Lokvencová – the first Slovak theatre female director, Irena Blühová – the first female photographer, Hana Gregorová – the first feminist and Beatrix “Trixi” Čelková, branded the youngest female spy in Europe. Zuzana Liová, the author of the 2011 feature film The House (Dom), successful at festivals, directed the first and third parts; the second part was directed by Lenka Moravčíková-Chovanec and the portrait of Trixi was made by director Peter Kerekes who is known for his full-length documentaries 66 Seasons (66 sezón), Cooking History (Ako sa varia dejiny) as well as being the co-author of Velvet Terrorists (Zamatoví teroristi) screened last year at the Berlin IFF in the Forum Section.

In January 2015, the full-length documentary by Anna Grusková Return to the Burning House was premièred in cinemas. It tells the story of Haviva Reik – a native of Slovakia who escaped from fascism to Palestine, played a part in the building of Israel, returned to Europe during the Slovak National Uprising and engaged in the fight against the occupiers. “Haviva’s brave and restless soul not only led her to leave for the Palestine of that time, to build a kibbutz and later to undergo military and intelligence training, but also to rebel against the conventional model of behaviour of a married woman. She was diligent and resilient, she liked to learn and that took her to a leading position among paratroopers. But she was also receptive, kind-hearted, sensitive and selfless. The concept of the film is based on this dichotomy – the search for both faces of a heroine,” clarifies the author of the film, Anna Grusková, on the website haviva.sk. “We get to the lives of contemporary young women serving in the army in Israel and Slovakia through Haviva Reik’s story. They read the letters and period documents so they bring to the film spontaneity and an authentic expression of those who are close to her in their life choice.”

At the beginning of January, ČT Art started broadcasting the documentary series Czechoslovak Film Miracle (Československý filmový zázrak). The script was prepared by Czech film historian and journalist Jan Lukeš, and the renowned Slovak filmmaker Martin Šulík is director. The series is in fifteen parts and deals primarily with the 1960s which are regarded as the golden era of Czechoslovak cinema. However, the authors also examine what preceded this period, how the scene was prepared for the advent of the new wave and what was characteristic for its final phase associated with the dramatic political and social movements. The individual parts of the series consist of 57-minute documentaries on the given topic, and after them period films related to the given topic are broadcast. The following Slovak films were selected: Wolves’ Lairs (Vlčie diery, dir. Paľo Bielik, 1948), A Song about the Grey Pigeon (Pieseň o sivom holubovi, dir. Stanislav Barabáš, 1961), Psychodrama (Psychodráma, dir. Jozef Zachar, 1964), Before Tonight Is Over (Kým sa skončí táto noc, dir. Peter Solan, 1965), Deserters and Pilgrims (Zbehovia a pútnici, dir. Juraj Jakubisko, 1968), as well as short films by Dušan Hanák, Juraj Jakubisko and Dušan Trančík. Of course, the project also includes films by Czech directors (such as Věra Chytilová, Karel Kachyňa, Jan Němec, Ivan Passer and Jaromil Jireš). Moreover, in the coming autumn, the second season of the television series The Golden Sixties (Zlatá šedesátá) will be broadcast. Thematically, this series is related to the Czechoslovak Film Miracle, the script was again prepared by Jan Lukeš, director Martin Šulík also collaborated and it was co-produced by the Slovak Film Institute.

Martin Šulík also made the full-length documentary Milan Čorba; in it he seeks to capture the personality of the prominent Slovak costume designer. The film was made in two versions – a shorter television version and a longer one for cinemas. “Milan Čorba was one of those who re-defined the profession of costume designer in the mid-1960s. Not only did the costume define the nature of the character and its social background, but it also directly affected the meaning and thematic level of the work. Within his profession, Čorba was unique in this. He belonged to the generation that tried to change Slovak culture overall,” said Šulík for Film.sk. His portrait of Čorba is also plastic thanks to the myriad of Slovak and Czech filmmakers he collaborated with, and thanks also to suitably selected and combined answers. The Slovak public-service television has already presented the shorter version of the documentary; the longer one should be screened in cinemas in April.

Daniel Bernát