Works in progress 2021

Interiéry / Insides

Slovakia – Czech Republic – Germany | colour | 80 min.
documentary | in development
director, screenplay: Paula Ďurinová
producer: Matej Sotník (Guča, SK)
co-producers: Michal Kráčmer (Analog Vision, CZ), Jana Cisar (Jana Cisar Filmproduktion, DE)
workshops & forums: Dox In Vitro 2020
support: Slovak Audiovisual Fund
principal photography: 10/2021 – 04/2022
expected release: 11/2022

Anxiety is the unspeakable elephant in the room. In mutual sharing between a group of strangers, the triggers of life in modern capitalism are exposed. Can our own vulnerability be used as a radical act? The answer arises as we follow several characters in two parallel realities: the reality of the personally-experienced outside world shifts to a utopian space – a designed incubator where angst can safely be revealed. During the pandemic, the concept of intimacy in the urban environment is being tested more than ever. Insides leads us to realize our own body both individually

Matka noci / Mother of the Night

Slovakia – Czech Republic – Latvia | colour | 120 min.
fiction | horror, psychological drama, lyrical thriller | in development
director: Peter Czikrai
producers: Jana Kluková (KFS production, SK), Michal Kollár (KFS production, SK)
co-producers: Andrea Shaffer (Mindset Pictures, CZ), Guna Stahovska (Mojo Raiser, LV)
workshops & forums: MIDPOINT Intensive SK 2019
support: Slovak Audiovisual Fund
expected release: 11/2022

On her ninth birthday, Lucia disappears with-out trace. Her unexpected return to her mother and village community a year later is inter-preted as a miracle from God. But a series of unexplained incidents raises questions about the nature of Lucia’s disappearance, and her subsequent strange behaviour. Her mother slowly becomes the focus of an intense con-flict between the concerned community and her only daughter.

Moc / Power

Slovakia – Hungary – Czech Republic | colour | 100 min.
fiction | political thriller | in post-production
director: Mátyás Prikler
producers: Zora Jaurová (MPhilms, SK), Mátyás Prikler (MPhilms, SK)
co-producers: Viktória Petrányi (Proton Cinema, HU), Petr Oukropec (Negativ, CZ), Pavel Strnad (Negativ, CZ), RTVS (SK)
workshops & forums: Holland Film Meeting 2015, Les Arcs Co-Production Village
2015, ACE 2016, KVIFF Pitch & Feedback 2017
support: Slovak Audiovisual Fund, Minority Culture Fund (SK), Hungarian National Film Fund, Eurimages, Czech Film Fund, Creative Europe – Media
expected release: 2021

Somewhere on the border between two Central European countries, a boy is accidently killed during an unlicensed hunt. One of the politi-cians involved is the leading candidate for the key international post of Water Commissioner, tasked with finding a solution for European water shortages. The government hires secret agent Steiner to hush up the scandal. Yet the more he investigates, the more embroiled he becomes in the dilemmas of power and its use. How much can be uncovered about the truth and its protagonists? Is the truth hidden in the events or consequences?

One More Question

Slovakia – Great Britain – Czech Republic | colour | 90 min.
documentary | in production
director & screenplay: Mira Erdevički
producers: Zuzana Mistríková (PubRes, SK), Ľubica Orechovská (PubRes, SK)
co-producers: Lucie Wenigerová (Spring Pictures, GB), Martin Juza (Krutart, CZ), RTVS (SK), Czech Television (CZ)
workshops & forums: DOK Leipzig Co-Pro Market 2019
support: Slovak Audiovisual Fund, Czech Film Fund, Minority Culture Fund (SK), BFI/Doc Society, Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage (GB)
expected release: Spring 2022

One More Question is a film with three protag-onists: Ondrej Olah, Denisa Ganon, and Peter Toták. They represent a generation of Roma children who emigrated to the United Kingdom in the 1990s and early 2000s. They were given chances in England that they had been denied in their native lands – Slovakia and the Czech Republic – and now they are educated and confident Europeans. But Brexit and the world-wide pandemic have intervened in their lives. We observe the consequences very closely, through the eyes of the film’s protagonists.

Potlesk / Applause

Slovakia – Poland – Czech Republic | colour | 90 min.
fiction | drama | in production
director: Juraj Lehotský
producers: Juraj Lehotský (Arytmia, SK), Michaela Jelenek (Arytmia, SK)
delegate producer: Katarína Tomková (kaleidoscope, SK)
co-producers: RTVS (SK), Izabela Igel (Harine Films, PL), Tomáš Weinreb (Black Balance, CZ)
workshops & forums: Les Arcs Works in Progress 2021
support: Slovak Audiovisual Fund, Polish Film Institute, Czech Film Fund
expected release: 2021

Matúš is a talented musician left alone with his stepbrother, Dávid, after the passing of his adoptive mother. While Dávid takes what life gives him, Matúš feels frustrated by his failed ambitions and feels like the tables have turned when he unexpectedly bumps into his old schoolmate Albert. But unlike Dávid, who has found happiness in a senior’s home, Matúš cannot find joy despite his success in the “better world”. He slowly realizes that happi-ness is a state of mind hidden in small things, and that the life we live is also about those we live for.

Potopa / Flood

Slovakia | colour | 90 min.
fiction | drama | in development
director: Martin Gonda
producers: Katarína Krnáčová (Silverart, SK), Tomáš Gič (Silverart, SK)
workshops & forums: Connecting Cottbus cocoPITCH 2020, Sources 2 Script Development Workshop 2020, Pop Up Film Residency 2020
support: Slovak Audiovisual Fund, Minority Culture Fund (SK)
principal photography: 06/2022
expected release: 09/2023

The fate of Mara’s home village is sealed by a new dam project. She longs to leave the countryside to study in town, but her father – a Ruthenian farmer – keeps her tied to the family land, which he defends despite the end approaching. Mara finds herself at the heart of a village community which is plagued by failing infrastructure, hidden terrors of the authorities, and the incoming flood.

Samorast / Chicken

Slovakia | colour | 17 min.
fiction | tragicomedy | in production
director, screenplay: Peter Hoferica
producers: Academy of Performing Arts – Film and TV Faculty (SK)
support: Slovak Audiovisual Fund
expected release: 08/2021

Juraj returns home to tell his parents some-thing important. But as soon as he opens the door, he finds out his parents are divorcing. At first, he considers himself old enough to get through this, but the longer he stays home, the more he starts panicking. Suddenly he has to figure out who his parents are, and who he is himself.

Šťastný človek / A Happy Man

Slovakia – Czech Republic | colour | 90 min.
social documentary | in production
director & screenplay: Soňa Gyárfáš Lutherová
producers: Maroš Hečko (AZYL Production, SK), Peter Veverka (AZYL Production, SK)
co-producers: Filip Čermák (Company F, CZ), HBO Europe
workshops & forums: Agora Docs in Progress 2020, Dox In Vitro 2020
support: Slovak Audiovisual Fund
expected release: Autumn 2022

A Happy Man tells the intimate story of a strong and unique person and his family. The film encourages viewers to consider alter-natives in existential interactions that may concern all of us.
Czech girl “R” emigrated to Sweden with her Slovak husband Ivan ten years ago. They had two children and made a new home abroad. R realizes that she doesn’t feel good as a woman. She wants to change gender and take the name Marvin instead. It’s an intimate story of Marvin’s personal transformation as a partner, immigrant, writer of erotic novels, and activist. Transition is not only physical change but also a fundamental transforma-tion of one’s own perception.

Strigov

Slovakia | black-and-white | 8 min.
documentary | in postproduction
director, screenplay: Barbora Berezňáková
producer: Eva Pavlovičová (Známa firma, SK)
support: Slovak Audiovisual Fund
expected release: 01/2022

“All of life is a preparation for death“
- Cicero -

Death, so present in our lives in a very new context now. A short documentary film of a traditional Ruthenian funeral made as a way of coping with the loss of a beloved person, an ancestor. The slow disappearance of the old world. The last hand-in-hand, the coffin lid closed. The silence. Grey hair, crossing the chest in quiet prayer. Steam rising from the mouth. An empty chair. White flowers on white snow. Secret coins under the pillow, closed eye-lids, whispers and cries.
The last way up. To the roots. To infinity.

Zošalieť / Unbalanced

Slovakia – Czech Republic | colour | 85 min.
fiction | social tragicomedy | in production
director: Zuzana Piussi
screenplay: Ingrid Hrubaničová
producer: Vít Janeček (VIRUSfilm, SK / D1film, CZ)
support: Slovak Audiovisual Fund, Czech Film Fund
expected release: 03/2022

A story of 45-year-old Nada and her 10-year-old daughter. Following her divorce, Nada has decided to start living again and better – to feel calmer and be more successful. But an unexpected source of frustration for Nada comes in the form of a local mentally ill person living in the flat above hers. With the author-ities, neighbours, and relatives of the sick person not seeing Nada’s situation as worthy of resolution, it looks like she’s stuck. Nada begins to develop mental problems herself, and picks out the old neighbour as her target...