Ivan Palúch
Olga is a complex young woman desperate to break free from her unfeeling family and social conventions. With her Louise Brooks-like tomboyish looks she drags herself, chain-smoking, from one job to another until she appears to find her niche as a truck driver. Although she has female lovers she does not form a bond with any of them; instead she clashes, time and again, venting herself in wordless emotional outbursts and other behavioural extremes.
A triangle of love, attraction and hatred in this new Slovak film with fantastic acting performances. Three friends in their best years decide to celebrate a divorce, a fortieth birthday and a new sexual adventure. However, they don't count on Zuza's sixteen-year-old daughter Mira, who, in addition to her rebellion against the world's conventions, brings a hatred for her mother and a desire to be loved at any cost.
Sentiment is Tomáš Hejtmánek's intimate documentary portrait of the great Czech director František Vláčil. The film was inspired by encounters with the filmmaker and told through taped interviews, reconstructions of meetings with Vláčil, visits to actual film locations (of Marketa Lazarova, The Valley of the Bees and Adelheid) and Vláčil-inspired film sequences. The result is one of the most unique and personal portraits of any artist – a collage of voices, sounds and images that evoke and celebrate Vláčil’s life and work.
A day in the life of Arnošt, a soldier staying in Josefov. A sense of desperation permeates the environment as well as the mind of the protagonist. It is sunday, and saturday left just a hangover. Days go by, nothing changes. A metaphor for the political situation in the Czech lands at a time where depicting a soldier as a drunk was considered out of place to say the least.
The drama called I Love, You Love was made in 1980 but because of the absurd ideological ban, the film entered cinemas nine years later. Pišta is an unmarried man who works at a freight wagon which carries letters and parcels. Alcohol helps him to overcome his handicap of being short and not good-looking. He wishes he had a woman, but the woman he really wants, ageing Viera who reloads the cargoes, has a soft spot for another man. So, Pišta has nobody and nothing, except for senile mother who sometimes fails to recognize him. The film received Silver Bear for Best Director at the International Film Festival in Berlin.
A story of a young student of medicine, who arrives in a small mountain village after being accused for carrying out illegal abortion. The film reflects the moral decline of the society, where stealing in secret and making compromises against one's beliefs make up mundane reality. The filmmakers went to perhaps the furthest possible limits in terms of allowed social criticism in the 1980s. The negative picture is enhanced by its rural setting, since the Slovak village had been traditionally associated with strict morals and conservative values.
Who could forget the Favorites figure Svákov Ragan in acting creations neopakovatel'ného Jozef Kroner? Three-part television film Sváko Ragan, created according to stories Ela Sándor already at its first introduction many years ago, soon won favor with audiences. Brought not only good fun, but also an attractive view of a world Myjavská site with many rustic Alpine traditions and characters and witty dialect used, especially Myjavský and Brezovský. Above all this, however, it is dominated by the ability to invent Svákov Ragan was even in the most uncomfortable situations ... Brezovskí tanners have been known not only to the quality of its products, but ischopnosťou their products at fairs successfully foreground. Highly after the fairs and markets in the near and distant surroundings Birch Nachod and Sváko Ragan and no wonder that their business has seen wandering the lot but cheerful and made many hilarious but also less hilarious "deal" ...
A girl is transformed into a maple tree by her impulsive and angry mother. Three poor wandering musicians come by the tree and create instruments from it. Walking around the country instead of happiness they bring death everywhere with their cursed instruments. However they cannot get rid of them, unless they bury the wooden instruments at the place of the tree. The three are anything but harmonious, each taking in their disputes various stances.
Jealous of her vapidly "good" sister's popularity, poisonous Viktoria doses pretty Klara's tea with a slow-acting fatal substance. As the latter grows hysterically weak, the former finds success increasingly compromised by guilt, blackmail, and the pesky need to kill others lest she be exposed.
The hero of this popular fairy tale is a young prince who, after the death of his parents, goes out into the world. During his travels he meets a magical talking horse and falls in love with the beautiful princess Slavna. On the advice of his horse, he binds one eye and pretends to be dumb and enters into service as the castle gardener.
A bizarre and tragic love story involving swineherd, village fool, teacher and an agricultural pilot. The story unfolds in a remote village in the communist ruled Yugoslavia at the down of Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968.
It was autumn 1939, shortly after the attack on Poland by the German army. The military component of the Slovak State are allies of the Nazis, and with them came on Polish territory. They're alongside the mighty army of Hitler's occupation force. In the decimated Polish town the Commander of the Slovak company Major Valenta issues orders that all residents surrender weapons if they own any. Insubordination will be punishable by death. Shortly after, the charming young Polish lady Žofie reports Valenta about: Professor Klosowski, who is Professor of Botany at the local high school, said to be hiding out at home in the library of the gun. Valenta reluctantly executes search warrant and weapon is found, but it is immediately clear that the old Professor became the victim of misunderstandings or possible fraud. To his surprise, he soon discovers that Sophie has a close relationship with Klosowski. But just before he fathoms the mystery, the occupation machinery executes havoc.
Mikolás and his brother Adam rob travelers for their tyrannical father Kozlík. During one of their "jobs" they end up with a young German hostage whose father escapes to return news of the kidnapping and robbery to the King. Kozlik prepares for the wrath of the King, and sends Mikolás to pressure his neighbor Lazar to join him in war. Persuasion fails, and in vengeance Mikolás abducts Lazar's daughter Marketa, just as she was about to join a convent. The King, meantime, dispatches an army and the religious Lazar will be called upon to join hands against Kozlik. Stripped-down, surreal, and relentlessly grimy account of the shift from Paganism to Christianity.
In a small town in Nazi-occupied Slovakia during World War II, decent but timid carpenter Tono is named "Aryan comptroller" of a button store owned by an old Jewish widow, Rozalie. Since the post comes with a salary and standing in the town's corrupt hierarchy, Tono wrestles with greed and guilt as he and Rozalie gradually befriend each other. When the authorities order all Jews in town to be rounded up, Tono faces a moral dilemma unlike any he's known before.
