Artistic Director Vladimír Štrica’s programme selection:
Above me is the sky, in the valley am I (Katarína Gramatová)
A coming-of-age drama inspired by true events from the so-called „hungry“ Slovak valleys. The story of fifteen-year-old Enrique, who grows up with his grandmother in a forgotten Slovak village. His mother, Martina, works far away in the city and rarely comes home. The summer days pass slowly: riding mopeds, minor escapades with friends, occasional tasks from his mother. But something is changing beneath the surface. Enrique begins to realise that his mother's demands are not as innocent as they seemed. Rumours are circulating in the village. His certainty about his mother crumbles – he discovers that the image he had of her might have been just an illusion.
The Great Patriotic Trip (Robin Kvapil)
Do you think the war in Ukraine is a scam? That the media is lying about the death tolls and the consequences of the „special military operation“ in Ukraine? This was the call by director Robin Kvapil, to which sixty people responded, questioning the Russian invasion. Three of them, who describe themselves as „desolates“ and supporters of Vladimir Putin, eventually travelled with the crew to Donbas.
Chronicle (Martin Kollár)
The slide captures everyday stories and creates a collective portrait of contemporary reality – not only as a documentation of the present, but also as an archive for the future. Through images, it reveals absurd routines and peculiar habits, as well as our tendency to rely on systems that we simultaneously question.
Ice Show
In the drama with fantasy elements, Marion Cotillard plays a mysterious film star who unexpectedly becomes close to a young refugee from a remote children's home during the filming of The Snow Queen. The film was awarded the Silver Bear at this year's Berlinale.
Sanatorium on Eternity (Stephen and Timothy Quay)
A ghostly train journey along a forgotten railway line transports Jozef to visit his dying father at a remote Galician sanatorium. Upon arrival, Jozef discovers the sanatorium is deserted. He is led by a dubious Doctor Gotard. The latter informs Jozef that his father's death, which befell him in his homeland, has not yet occurred here and that everything there is always delayed by an unknown length of time. Jozef realises that the sanatorium is a floating world halfway between sleep and wakefulness, where time and events cannot be measured in a tangible way.
Ebony and Ivory (Jim Hosking)
Paul welcomes Stevie to his remote Mull of Kintyre farm, arriving by boat, naturally. Here, perhaps the greatest challenge to racial harmony ever recorded is born. Between tokes of „doobie woobies“ and total condemnation of Linda McCartney's vegetarian convenience meals, the two music legends find themselves embroiled in increasingly bizarre conversations about sheep, the nature of true genius, and the terrifying weight of artistic immortality.
The Guest and the Fish on the Third Day (Peter Hoogendoorn)
The story is framed by a three-day reunion of a father and his adult son. The black-and-white tragicomedy, exploring the reality of family relationships, successfully avoids clichéd idylls and confirms that the best family visits are short ones.
Lonely Afternoons (Albert Serra)
This dynamic documentary portrait of a star bullfighter combines an intimate poetic quality with the brutality of traditional man-versus-beast contests. In its portrayal of bullfighting, the film oscillates between respect for tradition and an aesthetic challenge.
A Look into the Sun (Mascha Schilinski)
The film is a remarkable chronicle of the lives of four generations of women on a remote farm in East Germany. The house has changed over the centuries, yet echoes of the past still linger within it; though decades separate the main characters, their lives begin to mirror one another as they face the same challenges of patriarchy and come to terms with generational traumas.
Cicadas of the East (Matthew Wolkov, Jean-Jacques Martinod)
The unfinished film is passed from one friend to another. The dialogue between them is a journey intersected by a swarm of American Great Eastern Generation X periodical cicadas, which appear prophetically every 17 years and prompt reflection on the post-pandemic present and our shared future. A film composed of a chorus of voices (both human and non-human), the warnings of history, the forces of nature and rebirth.