Revisiting the Past

After last year’s domination of Slovak cinema by feature films, which were successful both with audiences and at festivals, it seems that this year there’s a flood of documentaries awaiting us. Of course, new feature films will not be absent either. Several of them will take a look into the past and they will reflect on significant historical events, such as the events of 1968, but political-social problems currently resonating in Slovakia and elsewhere will also have the word.

The distinctive road movie of director and screenwriter Martin Šulík The Interpreter (Tlmočník) will receive its first distribution première within Slovak feature production and it will also be screened at the 68th Berlin International Film Festival, so you can read more about it in the article on Slovak participation at the Berlin International Film Festival and in the interview with the director. In addition to The Interpreter, the dance film Backstage by director Andrea Sedláčková will also be presented in Slovak cinemas in the spring. It follows a group of young dancers from a small town, their dreams of fame, their ambitions, family relations and friends.

The historical film Dubček by director Laco Halama will tie in with the 50th anniversary of the significant events of 1968. “The entire story is conceived as a major retrospective which starts and ends on the day of Alexander Dubček’s fateful journey to Prague in 1992; in the course of this trip it’s as if he reminisced about the breakthrough events of his life – his greatest successes and popularity, but also his greatest humiliation which followed during the period of normalisation,” explained Halama. The co-production film Toman by director Ondřej Trojan will also look back into history. It talks about the contradictory head of the foreign intelligence service, Zdeněk Toman, who substantially influenced political development in Czechoslovakia from 1945 to 1948 and largely contributed to the take-over of power by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia by way of a political coup.

In the second half of the year, actor Jean-Marc Barr should introduce himself to audiences in Slovak cinemas in the lead role of the psychological drama Cellar (Pivnica) in which parents lose their only daughter. “Richard Pupala’s script and Igor Voloshin’s directing intention focus on creating a powerful psychological thriller depending on high-quality acting performances. The director’s work will bring in unique film poetics which will enrich Slovak cinematography,” said Lívia Filusová, the Slovak producer of Cellar. Teodor Kuhn’s full-length début By a Sharp Knife (Ostrým nožom) will also be released in cinemas. It was freely inspired by the murder of the young student, Daniel Tupý, which still remains unsolved to date. However, according to the filmmakers, it contains elements of several issues or problems faced by Slovak society. “We wanted to make an archetypal story about injustice in order to make audiences more aware of the fact that there really are people in Slovakia whom the state mistreats. We strove to concentrate the full extent of injustice into our film,” said Kuhn for Film.sk.

This year, further feature films should be released into cinemas, among them, for instance, Insect (Hmyz, dir. J. Švankmajer) which received its world première at the Rotterdam IFF, but also Who’s Next? (Kto je ďalší?, dir. M. Drobný), When Dragon Has a Headache (Keď draka bolí hlava, dir. D. Rapoš), Loli Paradicka (Loli Paradička, dir. R. and V. Staviarsky), Punk Never Ends! (Punk je hned!, dir. J. Šlauka).

Significantly more documentaries will be released into distribution this year than last year. The events that occurred in our country after the invasion of the armies of the Warsaw Pact countries in August 1968 will be brought closer to audiences in the international documentary Occupation 1968 (Okupácia 1968), made under the aegis of the Slovak producer, Peter Kerekes. Five directors from five countries (E. Moskvina, L. Dombrovszky, M. E. Scheidt, M. Szymkow, S. Komandarev) made short films about this invasion from the perspective of people who took part in it. Tomáš Krupa’s The Good Death (Dobrá smrť) refers to another fight. It questions whether we own our life, or whether it owns us. The main protagonist Janette is terminally ill and she wants to die with dignity, but at home, in the United Kingdom, this is not possible. That is why she contacts doctor Erika in Switzerland who is willing to help her.

Films touching upon the Roma issue are also in preparation for release in cinemas this year. Pavol Pekarčík looks into hearing-impaired children living on the periphery of society in A Long Day (Dlhý deň) by way of four stories. Ladislav Kaboš’s docudrama The Band (Kapela), in turn, depicts the birth of a music band under the difficult conditions of a Roma settlement in the east of Slovakia. Yet more documentaries will focus on portraits of personalities. Director Juraj Nvota’s film Elsewhere (Inde) will deal with the painter and pilgrim, Alex Mlynárčik. Earthly Paradise (Raj na zemi) made by Jaro Vojtek captures the fate of the reporter, Andrej Bán (this year, Vojtek will also première his documentary 7 Days/7 dní about people who live double lives as a result of them working far from home). Tereza is Peter Gašparík’s biographical film about his mother – the translator and interpreter, Tereza Gašparíková. Two further titles focus on personalities from cultural life. Stolen Lives of Peter Kalmus (Ukradnuté životy Petra Kalmusa, dir. A. Hanuljak) follows the distinctive visual artist of the title of the film, Válek (dir. P. Lančarič) talks about the significant poet, publicist and former Minister of Culture from the socialist era, Miroslav Válek. As regards other titles, let us, for instance, mention Roughly, Softly (Drsne a nežne, dir. Ľ. Štecko), Unseen (Neviditeľná, dir. M. Martiniaková), Sad Languages (Smutné jazyky, dir. A. Grusková) and The Bright Spot (Svetlé miesto, dir. D. Trančík).

— text: Zuzana Sotáková —
photo:
Insect/PubRes —