Discoveries from Slovakia World Cinema

During a commercial break, Peter goes to the kitchen for some snacks. However, every time he tries to open the fridge, he’s thrown back in time. From that moment on, he has only one goal 一 to open the fridge.

Southern Slovakia, hot summer days, a family of three generations meets under one roof. An unexpected visit from Zoja, the granddaughter, stirs up the peaceful routine. Within a quiet presence of God and alcohol, the family untails it’s tragicomical past and a few (almost) unsaid secrets.

Miroslav Válek was a Slovak poet whose sensitive and intimate work clashed with his political engagement in the communist party. How to approach this discrepancy, how to cope with it? Can one read poems while disregarding their author?

From Adam to the Three Kings is the subtitle of the dance comedy Slovak Christmas with SĽUK. A traditional opus as a comedy about the creation of the world and what came after.

One night, Lea and her geese are awakened by the howling of approaching wolves. Using a forest horn, she warns the village of the danger. The villagers attempt to defend themselves, but fear overwhelms them. Lea quickly hides the goslings in a small shelter and faces the wolves empty-handed. She starts throwing snowballs at them. The smaller wolves are deterred, but the largest one only smirks and continues toward her. Paralyzed, she drops a snowball to the ground. It begins rolling, grows in size, and sweeps the wolves away. Lea embraces her saved geese.

It's a fantasy house party from the 2000's and you're invited! Hosted by twin brothers Gred and Forge in their big family house while their parents are on vacation. Surely nothing could go wrong while the house is filled with magical creatures. Right?

A romantic-adventure set in early 14th-century Slovakia, where the powerful lord Matúš Čák Trenčiansky encounters figures drawn from Hurban, Pauliny-Tóth, Záborský, and Jége. As love and loyalty intertwine with political intrigue, their intertwined fates lead to the pivotal Battle of Rozhanovce in 1312, revealing Matúš’s struggle to reconcile personal passions with the wider destiny of his region in European history.

Eva’s home is a small hill called Birdhill on the outskirts of Bratislava. During her childhood, it was still covered with historic vineyards of Maria Theresa and forest; today’s reality is cranes and excavators. In her film, she gets to know its current inhabitants and discovers that each of them lives and dreams a slightly different version of this charismatic place. Even though they live on the same hill, they cannot come together to set limits on the construction that is transforming their home unrecognizably, ruthlessly and at a breathtaking pace.

The original contemporary TV movie is an intimate story of a relationship between a middle-aged man and woman whose perspective is diminished by a different set of moral values. It is also a confrontation of two principles at work in today's world - the ruthlessly pragmatic, the ruthlessly "impractical" in its focus on the dying values of interpersonal relationships, the quiet harmony of life, and aesthetic beauty.

In the early 20th century, in the surroundings of a luxurious boarding house and casino, the story of a mature woman and an immature young man unfolds. He is obsessed with gambling, she with the desire to save him with her love. It happened twenty years ago. The elderly noble lady recalls her experience in her youth and, with the benefit of hindsight, explains and defends it.

Oľga Ondreičková is one of the exceptional figures of the first generation of Slovak architects. Her work is characterized by pragmatism, simplicity, and monumentality. Her husband is architect Pavel Ondreička, with whom she collaborated on several projects, as well as on the design of furniture, interiors, and artistic decorations. At the height of her career, Oľga Ondreičková led her own project team, which was rare for a woman at that time.

30-year-old Anna seeks a stable foundation in her relationships but unknowingly repeats the manipulative patterns learned from her mother. When she crosses paths with a terminally ill patient and his devoted wife, Anna experiences a profound love that transforms her life.

A documentary on how American films are made well at the renowned Studio Koliba, Slovakia and also the harsh and cruel view of why films do not go well in SR.

Musical-dramatic production based on songs by Gejza Dusík from the operetta Under a Foreign Flag. The production is about the fact that the past can be beautiful in memories, but it also has a lot of sadness and sorrow...

King Bee is a time-lapse documentary/comedy about contemporary society and times. The collective portrait of the people of Spišský Hrhov – a Slovak village featured in the New York Times – strives to find answers to whether or not ideal community life is still attainable. In the 21st century, our society emphasises the importance of individual self-realisation, thus forgetting about our interdependence. Are we just going to bitterly, yet with admiration, watch the prosperous bee kingdom?

The story of little Omylka, strong in his faith in goodness, purity, friendship and the great Hndrigul, who was born by human indifference to some essential parts of life. A television production of a rock fairy tale - a clown show about good and evil with an ecological subtext.

An affectionate film that tells the story of Eva Marty, and her dog, Kubko, who rediscover each other thanks to unexpected catastrophe. They get the opportunity to share an incredible, literally cosmic experience together

An authentic story of four Slovak and Russian polar explorers who tried to cross the Arctic Ocean from Russia to Canada through the North Pole, thus fulfilling the last remaining, almost impossible dream of Arctic explorers.

Eighty-year-old Paul Earling Johnson is a man most people might walk past, never guessing he was once a seafaring adventurer and famous boat designer.

Zoltán, a young electrician, lives in Komárno, a town on the border of Hungary and Slovakia. His simple, carefree life suddenly changes, when he is accidentally hit by a car and almost killed. He dreams of a guardian angel who grants him a new lease on life on one condition: in three days, he has to improve the lives of at least three other inhabitants of this town that long ago forgot how to be happy. Thus begins Zoltán's incredible journey.

Part documentary, part mockumentary and part stranger-than-fiction lesson in guerilla tactics, Velvet Terrorists is a quirky profile of three very different men and their former attempts to take down the communist regime of Czechoslovakia – by blowing the hell out of it. Having all spent time in prison for their crimes, one-time bombers Stanislav, Frantisek and Vladimir muse on their personal histories, the fall of the regime and their journey into middle age.

A group of Slovakian squatters break up in a snow-covered ruin on the Danube.

A Kafkaesque documentary over ten years in the making that sheds light on the absurdity of a bureaucratic system, set within the never-ending process of renovation of the Slovak National Gallery.

A babysitter, a bunch of laborers, and a long-haul truck driver. All were born in Slovakia, but after the country joined the EU, they took the opportunity to work elsewhere in the Schengen zone. During week-long work shifts in Austria, Germany, or on European motorways, they try to get used to their foreign environments while struggling to maintain contact with their children and partners. For their future, they left for better-paying jobs. Now they are losing them by their absence. They don't know what awaits them when they return home. A trio of saddening stories compose a laconic portrait of a globalised labour market that allows people to fulfil their dreams, but often at great sacrifice.

Zuzana Piussi, the director, in the main role of a documentary crime story about the fate of Slovak cinema. Walking up the hill over Bratislava, which used to house the Slovak National Film Studios – Koliba, she reveals fragments of the controversial truth, absurd half-truths and well-kept secrets and lies about the breakdown of and fraud made on the “family silver”, Slovak cinema. It is the first attempt to explore the problem that, for years, has not been resolved in the Slovak cultural environment.

In the past ten years, the Slovak citizens’ trust in justice has fallen sharply. Thanks to the access to Threema messages of Marian Kočner, a businessman under investigation in relation to the murder of the journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová, a vast corruption network within state administration and the justice system has been revealed. Disintegrating the merciless machinery including corrupt judges, rich and influential businessmen, mafia, politicians, and innocent citizens alike, is all but an easy task. Reflecting on the long-term crisis of the Slovak justice system, Zuzana Piussi’s investigative documentary asks whether the justice system with its many failures can ever be corrected.

This documentary film reveals how the lives of the descendants of a partisan fighter in the Second World War are still impacted by the events of that period, 75 years after the end of hostilities. In making her case, Lacková provides glimpses into her private surroundings. Over the course of her film, she also points out frightening parallels between the reign of the Nazi terror regime and the resurgence of racist currents throughout today's Europe.

Two gold diggers and a robber meet in a parodic vision of the Wild West.

Dominik is a young graduate experiencing his first relationship. Adam becomes a mentor, idol and first love for him. With great feeling, there are also great uncertainties. He finds out that he does not belong to his world of young Bratislava, but he still tries to make their relationship work.

The seven members of the gypsy band Lomnické Čháve come from a Roma settlement and dream of making it big. Sensitively observed and with uplifting music the film tells the story of their journey, struggles, enthusiasm, failures and perseverance.

The film RYTMUS Housing Estate Dream took 8 years to create and closely documents the life of one of the most famous personalities of the Czech-Slovak music scene. Patrik "Rytmus" Vrbovský grew up in an ordinary family in a housing estate in Piešťany and, due to his Roma origin, he often encountered prejudice from his surroundings. Today, he releases albums in tens of thousands of copies, was a Superstar judge, and his videos have been viewed on the Internet by more than 200 million users. The film will also offer exclusive footage from family archives of videos and photographs, supported by personal testimonies from people from Rytmus' closest circle.

Albert has spent his whole life wanting to travel but he has been stuck at home, living in a small town making enamel signs. He has saved up everything he has and reluctantly sells his home and livelihood to embark on this trip, a lifelong dream that will honor a deceased friend. But the journey he will embark on is not what he has anticipated.

During World War II, Adam sells his soul to the Devil to save his beloved family. He loses everything and becomes immortal against his will. It's 2025, the world is changing, and Adam wants revenge.

This is not just a “folkumentary”, but an invitation to reflect on the future of humanity on a planet where tradition and technology coexist, and where the unknown reminds us that there are still unanswered questions.

The story of the power of motherly love tells of a young man whose life was touched by the magical power of the Evil Forest. The young man received the violin he had longed for and a beautiful woman. Because of her beauty, he stopped perceiving everything that made his life good. But there is no power whose malice love cannot overcome, no sacrifice a mother would not make to save her son...

Humanity began a new era on the New Earth, and Madam Victoria is thus the last inhabitant of one of the few remaining cities on Earth. Why is the mysterious Adam visiting this city?

The original television production based on the story about the fresco on the Old Town Hall in Bratislava. It is linked to medieval Bratislava, its customs, settlement, relationships and tells the story of a beautiful and brave widow and a greedy sworn. In their unequal struggle for the truth, the devil of Bratislava intervenes - and according to legend, he still oversees justice in the city.

A video film about the dramatic events in the life of twelve-year-old Beethoven.

Two families live in an old house in a small town. Downstairs with his parents, a poor boy and upstairs, the owner's little girl, who sings very well and aspires to become a great singer. The boy adores his little friend and is very proud of her pretty voice. One day the children go to a fair together. The boy buys his friend a gingerbread heart with his hardly saved pennies and gives it to her out of great love. But he cannot yet tell her how much he loves her. He whispers his feelings only to the old willow tree, which is the only one who knows his secret. The years pass and the children become adults…

A failed product copywriter (Drago Lazetich) with an alcohol dependency crosses paths with a mysterious stranger (Émilie Ohana) on a personal mission, and together, they embark on an unforgettable adventure across the neon-lit Shanghai.