Slovak Films at Bratislava IFF 2015
The Bratislava International Film Festival opens its 17th edition. The festival will be held on Nov 12 – 17 in three municipal and club cinema theatres: Lumiére Cinema, Mladosť Cinema and Nostalgia Cinema.
A rich programme presenting the best of European cinema will introduce more than twenty Slovak titles or films by Slovak filmmakers.
Within the Fiction Competition the Slovak premiere is waiting for Family Film by Slovenian director Olmo Omerzu. The drama about complicated family relationships premiered at San Sebastian IFF has recently obtained the Award for Best Artistic Contribution at Tokyo IFF. The Family Film is also included into the non-competitive section Theme: Family.
Slovak premiere is also prepared for the Serbian short Play! directed by Slovak filmmaker Andrej Kolenčík. The short documentary is observing Dušan, an eight-year-old boy trapped in limbo between two polar opposite worlds: spends his time amongst gambling adults in a casino while his imagination is captivated by children’s television series. The film is competing in the Shorts Competition and also will be screened within the Europa, the section presenting the best of contemporary European cinema.
Further Slovak films have their platform within the traditional sidebar Made in Slovakia, which showcases the latest Slovak film production, including short and student films:
The Cleaner (d. Peter Bebjak) - film about problems in interpersonal communication, about how strongly events from our childhood can influence us and how hard it is for us to cope with them. The film had its world premiere at Warsaw IFF.
Home Care (d. Slávek Horák) - at times darkly funny, and at times bittersweet Horák´s feature debut examines the finality of human existence through a tender portrayal of a dedicated home care nurse, who puts everyone’s needs above her own.
True Štúr (d. Michal Baláž) - an atractive docudrama trying to trace the mysterious circumstances of the death of Ľudoví Štúr, the leader of the Slovak national revival in the 19th century.
The FU AKU´s collection of students films: AFK: Away From Keyboard (d. Patrik Kováč), Jozef Kuchar (d. Róbert Bošeľa), Contact (d. Marek Pupák), Lilies for Daniela (d. Barbora Vaculová) a To Seen the Unseen (d. Michal Kočiš).
The FTF VŠMU´s selection of students films: Mothers and Daughters (d. Ivana Hucíkováň), Mor Ho! (d. Martin Michálik), Cowboyland (d. Dávid Štmupf), First Surgery (d. Daniel Rihák) and Fear (d. Michal Blaško).
The Festival also appreciates the lifetime artistic achievement of the Dame of Slovak theatre and cinema, actress Emília Vášáryová. This year’s award laureate and holder of the memorial tile on the Film Walk of Fame will be officially announced during the gala evening of the 17th Bratislava IFF. As part of the evening, the Festival will proudly screen The Copper Tower (1970), a legendary film by director Martin Hollý.
A newly introduced section Lexicon: Aspect Ratio will from now on focus on particular technical and aesthetic phenomena or means of expression. This year volume is dedicated to the issue of the film picture’s format, demonstrating the possibilities of particular formats as well as invention of filmmakers who have fulfilled them or even ventured beyond them. Several Slovak shorts are included in the section.
The main topic of the festival is family and this theme is connected with the films by Slovak-American documentarist Michal Suchý. The Retrospective: Michal Suchý comprising of two blocks of short and medium-length films will examine the two principal subject-matters of Suchý’s filmmaking: that of family and that of ethnography.
Slovak members of the Festival Juries
Judit Bárdos - currently a freelance actress who gives guest performances in three theatres. For rendering the main character Eva in her feature debut, The House (2011), she won the Blue Angel award at the Art Film Fest IFF as well as prestigious Igric and The Sun in a Net awards. She was nominated for the Czech Lion award for her role of Anna in Fair Play (2014) and clinched the Best Female Performance award at the Social World Film Festival in Vico Equense for the role of Jewish pianist Edith Kraus in In Silence (2014).
Eva Križková - as a co-founder, PR and project manager of the Filmtopia distribution company, she is also practically involved in distributing films for so-called discriminating viewers. She is a co-founder and editor-in-chief of cinema bi-monthly Kinečko, which provides a platform for an open and erudite debate of Slovakia’s cinema community.
Róbert Pospiš - currently works as part-time editor with Radio Devín as well as In.Ba and Film.sk monthlies. He has collaborated with a number of cultural magazines in Slovakia. He is an active musician, lyricist, music producer and the founder of the Real Music House publishing house.
In addition, the Student Jury composes of Gabriela Gažová (VŠMU), Verona Dubišová (VŠMU, VŠVU)and Denis Kozerawski (VŠVU).
programme schedule for download
Related AIC Articles:
2014: Slovak Films at Bratislava IFF 2014
published: 04.11.2015
updated: 10.11.2015