Two Slovak films at the 65th Berlinale

After the last year's success at Berlin IFF, when the Velvet Terrorists documentary won the Tagesspiegel Readers' Award, Slovak films are returning to the festival programme. The 65th Berlinale (February 5 - 15, 2015) introduces the feature debut by Ivan Ostrochovský Koza and the short animation by Martin Smatana Rosso Papavero.

The Forum section, focusing primarily on European and world premieres of independent auteur films, selected the Slovak-Czech produced Koza (2015) by Ivan Ostrochovský for the programme of its 45th edition in a world premiere. The film tells the story of a former Olympic boxer Peter Baláž, nick-named Koza, who after years of missing out on trainings, returns to the ring. To earn money and to make up his partner's mind about an abortion, he sets on a tour with his manager. The film was nominated for the Best First Feature Film Award by Festival Director Dieter Kosslick, a Jury consisting of Fernando Eimbcke (Mexico, director), Joshua Oppenheimer (USA, director) and Olga Kurylenko (actress, Ukraine - France) will decide about the Award.

Last year, the director together with his co-directors Peter Kerekes and Pavol Pekarčík, received the Tagesspiegel Reader's Award for their documentary Velvet Terrorists. Koza also caught attention of the international professional public at the 49. Karlovy Vary IFF, where it received the Works in Progress Awards for the most promising project.

The Generation section, which presents films for children and youth in its two competition programmes Generation Kplus and Generation 14plus, will present the short animation film by Martin Smatana entitled Rosso Papavero (2014) in Generation Kplus.

Smatana´s short puppet animation tells the story of a small boy with a head filled with fantasies, who witnesses a magical dream circus performance. The film received the Literary Fund Award at the Biennial of Animation Bratislava in 2014.

Congratulations to both films!

More information at:
www.kozamovie.com
www.berlinale.de

published: 28.01.2015
updated: 30.01.2015