Discoveries from Slovakia World Cinema

A documentary film about young Roma who do not deny their belonging to the Roma community and are fully integrated into mainstream society.

A visial contribution of the students of the Department of Animation to the centenary of world cinematography.

Actresses Zuzana Kronerová and Eva Pavlíková, singers Jana Kocianová, Martin Babjak and Jozef Benedik came together to sing to a folk tune. Each of them has a close relationship to the folk song, which they prove to us with their interpretation. Their partner will be none other than Diabolské violin with Ján Berky. In the mix of songs, they will also play with their father - the legendary primate Jan Berky-Mrenica. In an unusual constellation - with dulcimer music - guitarist Juraj Burian will also appear on the show.

It's the beginning of May. The roaring torrent, fed by the melting snow, turns the emerald water of the mountain tarns into white foam. Hundreds of springs of crystal clear water gradually flow through the Tatra wilderness to form one of the last wild rivers in Central Europe.

For almost 20 years, there has been a rehabilitation centre for clients with drug, alcohol and gambling addictions at Hraničná Street. Two years ago, a gambling club was built on the very same street. I grew up there and I came to like the clients as a child. That is one of the reasons why I was taken aback by the new gambling club in close proximity of the centre.

Like many other children, Cate Strophe is impatiently waiting for her Christmas presents, but she cannot wait for the snow to start falling. Alas, the snow doesn’t come. In a split second, lighting up the Christmas tree becomes an unpredictable adventure!

A tribute to the legendary Slovak singer. A music and dance theatre show featuring immortal hits interpreted by Karol Duchoń in a new guise performed by top young Slovak artists led by Patrik Vyskočil and arranged by Anton Popovič.

"Open the borders," chant democratically minded residents in Berlin and frustrated refugees behind the barbed wire of makeshift camps. The winding path between them is interwoven with encounters with empathetic volunteers and clashes with repressive state forces and hostile far-right citizens.

A propaganda film about the struggle of the Slovak army on the eastern front in 1941 and 1942.

Martina Mikušová’s MA film is packed full of aggression and passion, demonstrating the destructions of relationships. With jungle imagery and a booming soundtrack, Martina emphasises the primal instincts that sit rooted in us all, threatening to come out at any moment.

A dramatic story about human existence, love, ups and downs in a fascinating and fascinating dance of life among the shards. With his film, director Marek Ťapák loosely follows the strong tradition of music and dance films created by legendary Slovak filmmakers in the past, and projects them into a newly developed current form. The story is based on the imagination of the main character, emerging from the depths of memory, who lives his powerful life situations and experiences through dance, captivating music, tenderness and the power of the poetic word. His journey is pieced together from the individual shards of his life, which together form a fascinating mosaic of images moving through time and space.

A documentary about a village that was during one night in 1947 separated by force into a Soviet and a Czechoslovak part in a way, that the border runs through the middle of the village, separating properties and families.

A story about Bobo, who can’t see well, wears a “bad” occluder, makes up extraordinary things and long for ordinary glasses. And it’s also about things, like that it’s nice to help each other, that bad eyesight and a bad brother can get better, that sometimes miracles happen and sometimes we have to try for them.

A new teacher arrives at the school and discovers in sixth-grader Linda a talented and sensitive girl who bravely struggles with the growing problems of her age. "Magic" awakens in her the will to overcome the insurmountable - to believe in herself. The fact that Linda is able to pass on her experience to her little protégé, first-grader Mishka, is proof that she has succeeded.

A trio of friends meet in Latin America to start a story full of sorrows in the Peruvian capital. Their journey is tested by circumstances and complications, which they can and must deal with anyway. The pitfalls of this corner of the world test their patience and criminal integrity. How will they fare on a 10-day trip with only 5 nights?

Zdeno Vlach's film documentary presents the most valuable Carpathian forests in the four seasons, the original inhabitants of the fauna and flora, and the unique life cycle of a forest that has been almost unaffected by humans.

A portrait of the master potter Ján Frankovič from Bardejov, from 1970.

Trapped in the shadow of a towering silo, Claire faces her haunting past in a hostile women's community. To embrace life, she must confront her trauma. Will hope outshine the darkness of her wounds?

A young woman who craves for more recounts the story of a special dinner. A film about eating and female desire that genre-wise oscillates between fashion film, horror, video clip, and drama.

Recording of the 61st Folklore Festival Východná 2015 - Greetings from the Hron - the programme is dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the Horehron Days of singing and dancing, during which many generations of inhabitants of this region took turns on the stage in Heľpa.

When Grandpa Emil receives an email from the Nigerian Prince asking for financial help, he has no choice but to send the money. In return, the Prince promises his royal gratitude and half of his inheritance.

The love of the young woodcutter Jasek for the daughter of the sawmill owner, Etelka, is threatened by an ancient tragedy that took place in a secluded place in the middle of the mountains and forced Faktor to close himself and his daughter off from the world and people. However, the past resurfaces in the form of a mysterious man who comes to the sawmill one day.

Journalist Karel Chudoba visits the most famous sandwich shop in the Czech Republic. As he analyses the production process, interviews customers and eats several sandwiches (for research purposes), he realises that all may not be what it seems for both the sandwiches and for the film itself...

Documenting what happend on the Velvet Revolution.

What are you gonna do when the world’s on fire? Sit by the pool with a glass of Aperol Spritz and take a selfie for your friends back home? In this satirical take on tourism during the ecological crisis, Viera Čákanyová asks how costly the Ostrich Effect we all seem to suffer from really is? The film features realistic comments from holidaymakers, glossy travel agency advertisements and some dinosaurs, just passing by.

An experimental film essay shot in infrared, exploring hidden layers of the world through interior and exterior scenes.

Tskaltubo, once a famous Soviet spa town, has been transformed into the largest refugee camp in Georgia after the war in Abkhazia. Three decades later, the government is trying to restore its former glory, moving most of the displaced families to new apartment blocks on the outskirts of the city. The film follows the last residents of a sanatorium. Gia stays for her cats, Nunu for the plants and the fragile remnants of nature she cares for. In small daily rituals, they have created not only a home, but also a family - united by memories, resilience and the hope of one day returning to Abkhazia. For them, leaving would mean severing their last connection to the idea of ​​home.

Nawras, a Jordanian-Palestinian queer artist, has been living in Bratislava, Slovakia, for the past four years. Existing within two communities and clashing cultures, she is pushed towards a third goal; to find peace and a place she can call home. Can she reclaim the culture she was born into, this time, as she chooses to define it, and in doing so, create a community which will become her family?

Was Béla Hancsovszky an adventurer, terrorist or freedom fighter? On August 8, 1945, someone blows up the Tornalja Police Station, witnesses see three perpetrators, but only Hancsovsky is sentenced to death.

Eugen Suchoň's Krútňava is the first Slovak national opera featuring folk dances, customs, and folk song motifs. It is also a thrilling, psychologically sophisticated musical drama. Suchoň's Krútňava was written between 1941 and 1949 and premiered in 1949 at the Slovak National Theater. The opera had a turbulent history and was even adapted in the 1950s to meet the political requirements of the regime at the time. It was performed with great success at all opera houses in Czechoslovakia and also at many theaters abroad (in Budapest, Moscow, Berlin, Leipzig, Munich, and Antwerp).

An animated slapstick comedy about the changes we cause ourselves through our behavior

Who are Romani musicians? Enigmatic gatekeepers of a party atmosphere endowed with musical blood? Or is this all just a big myth? Three filmic chapters the ethnographic documentary Hopa Lide tackles this question in unorthodox ways. The roving camera takes us to the heart of intimate backstage moments and humorous performance scenes, uncovering the musicians’ everyday struggles and secret dreams.

The forest is cultivated with a saw. At least that’s still what forestry schools teach. But what does a healthy forest actually need? Foresters and hunters see the forest as an agricultural commodity and nature as something that must be constantly regulated and managed. On the other side stand conservationists – advocates of non-intervention, who believe the forest can take care of itself without us. Where does private ownership stand in this conflict? And is a human’s right to use natural resources in their surroundings superior to the bear’s right to do the same? Slovak forests have become a battleground – but also a proxy issue of a social conflict that runs much deeper than it first appears.

Fašiangy, a period associated with merriment, exuberance, and entertainment, has been preserved in the Rajec Valley to this day, albeit in modified forms.