Slovakia

  • Elo Havetta – Slávnost v botanickej záhrade AKA Celebration in the Botanical Garden (1969)

    Arthouse1961-1970ComedyElo HavettaSlovakia

    Quote:
    One of the lead characters is Maria, an inn keeper; always a bride but never a wife. She meets the newcomer Pierre, who disturbs the peace of the small village and teaches the locals how to enjoy life. The film is full of fireworks of lovely colours, and a warm feeling. It is like a carousel of humour and human situations that carry us away, from the very first frame to the unexpected ending, making the viewer laugh gaily. Using a mosaic approach to the traditional narrative line, the film director creates a picture of fairly anarchic glee. “Celebration in the Botanical Garden” is a world of fantasy, full of summer fun, good humour and delight. E. Havetta´s debut was inspired by naïve art, French impressionism, and silent slap-stick as well as Western Slovakian folk traditions.Read More »

  • Ján Lacko – Skalni v ofsajde aka Soccer Fans (1960)

    Comedy1951-1960Ján LackoSlovakia

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    Three soccer fans are determined to do literally anything to get to the soccer match between Czechoslovakia and the famous representation team of Brazil. Reaching their goal to see the dream match live cannot be precluded neither by a sudden work task nor family obligations. However, there is one more obstacle in their way: for some time, their enthusiastic behavior during soccer matches has been monitored by the police. This time, it will not be easy for them to get to the stadium.Read More »

  • Juraj Jakubisko – Vtáckovia, siroty a blázni AKA Birds, Orphans and Fools (1969)

    1961-1970ArthouseJuraj JakubiskoSlovakia

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Quote:
    Slovak director Juraj Jakubisko is often described as the Fellini of Eastern Europe. After the 1968 film The Deserter and the Nomads, he was put in exile in Czechoslovakia after the soviet invasion. With cooperation from a Paris film studio he made this film. Birds Orphans and Fools is a brilliant, surreal and underrated tragic comedy that not many people seem to know about. The story is about three orphans who have lost their families in war. Although the two men Andrej and Yorick and the lady Marta are adults, they act foolish like children trying to live life to the fullest. They resort with their landlord and other orphans in an apartment that is distorted with various shelves, cupboards and animals scattered about. But the main characters can’t block out the pain of living in a war torn country, and after Yorick is put in prison and returns a year later, things will never be the same. Towards the end the climax becomes maybe one of the most tragic in cinema history. This was the first film in Jakubisko’s trilogy of Happiness. If you enjoyed Jodorowsky’s Fando & Lis or Vera Chytilova’s Daisies, you have to see this film.Read More »

  • Stefan Uher – Slnko v sieti Aka The Sun in a Net (1962)

    1961-1970ArthouseDramaSlovakiaStefan Uher

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    A student, Oldrich “Fajolo” Fajtak, has a romantic attachment to two girls: his hometown love Bela, and Jana – a lover whom he meets during a summer job on a collective farm. One storyline of the film peels layers off Bela’s permanently tense home life marked by her blind mother’s helplessness, her father’s past break with his father who lives in the village where Fajolo is finding some consolation in the arms of his new lover Jana. As Fajolo begins to pry into Bela’s grandfather’s secrets, she, in turn, allows her new boyfriend Peťo to read and deride Fajolo’s remorseful letters from the farm. This lovers’ triangle provides the film with several oppositions: town and country, intelligentsia and worker, collective and personal truth in communist Czechoslovakia. The potential symbolism of the film appeared ominous to the Communist authorities bent on banning the film, but the nascent political thaw helped the filmmakers prevail and the release of “The Sun in a Net” became its harbinger in Czechoslovak film and culture.
    Stanislav Szomolányi’s location cinematography and Ilja Zeljenka’s musique concrète score remain striking.Read More »

  • Juraj Lehotsky – Zázrak AKA Miracle (2013)

    2011-2020DramaJuraj LehotskySlovakia

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    Juraj Lehotský’s riveting feature debut is about a troubled 15-year-old named Ela (electrifiying newcomer Michaela Bendulová) sent to live in a correctional facility. Forced there by her mother and cut off from the outside world, she keeps to herself, preferring to spend her time in solitude writing letters to her boyfriend. After escaping during New Year’s celebrations, she moves in with him, in the garage below the train tracks he calls home. Her life soon moves in unexpected directions, and, after a series of unpredictable events, Ela faces a life-changing decision. An official selection at the Toronto International Film Festival, Miracle is intense, daring filmmaking.Read More »

  • Zbynek Brynych & Jerzy Skolimowski & Peter Solan – Dialóg 20-40-60 (1968)

    1961-1970ArthouseDramaJerzy SkolimowskiPeter SolanSlovakiaZbynek Brynych

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    SYNOPSIS:
    This film is an experiment. One dialogue, three filmmakers, three stories. Jerzy Skolimowski (Polish), Peter Solan (Slovak), and Zbynek Brynych (Czech) created their variations of the same conversation. Focusing on couples in their twenties, forties, and sixties, these three inventive sketches illustrate the emotional interaction between a man and a woman.Read More »

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