The Cinematik International Film Festival annually dedicates special attention to the contemporary cinematography of one European country in its programme. At its 21st edition, which will take place in Piešťany from 8 to 13 September, it will present the work of Danish filmmakers. Special attention will also be given to one of the most acclaimed Danish directors and the festival's main international guest, Nils Malmros, whose retrospective and masterclass will be among the highlights of the Respect section.
Every year, Cinematik offers audiences a comprehensive overview of the contemporary cinema of a selected European country. This year, the choice fell on Denmark – one of the world’s most prominent film-producing nations. The success of Danish cinema is down not only to a wealth of talented directors, but also to long-term and systematic support from the state. In the section Denmark under the microscope Cinematik will be screening ten current films from various genres, all making their Slovak festival premieres.
Among them will be an action-packed crime thriller A Silent Heist (De lydløse), which transports viewers back to 2008, when the financial crisis hit Europe. A group of seasoned criminals decide to carry out the biggest heist in Danish history. The film follows the meticulous and risky preparations for this spectacular operation, which is intended to be a shortcut to wealth and fame.
Original document The Father, the Sons and the Holy Spirit (Faderen, sønnerne og helligånden) tells the story of brothers Henrik and Christian, who find themselves at odds over the inheritance left by their wealthy elderly father. Whilst Henrik strives to overcome generational trauma and build a stable life for his family, Christian is driven by anger and hatred, which lead him into the ranks of a right-wing fraternity. The conflict between the brothers gradually turns into a struggle for the future of the next generation.
Cinematik will also be screening an evocative historical film The Stranger (Fremmed: The First Confrontation), set around 4000 BC. After her family is massacred, young Aathi and her brother are forced to live amongst the hunters and gatherers who have robbed them of their home. To survive, she must accept their rules and traditions. However, increasingly harsh demands force the young woman to make a crucial choice – to seek revenge or to adapt. The film offers a glimpse into the first major cultural conflict in European history.
The selection will also be complemented by a psychological drama The Fall of Hercules (Herkules falder). Its protagonist is Youssef, a war veteran who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and struggles with mental health issues and strained family relationships. Upon arriving at a rehabilitation centre on the remote island of Strynø, he embarks on a painful journey of self-discovery. Gradually, he realises that rebuilding lost family ties may be even more challenging than surviving the war.
This poetic film has enjoyed a successful festival tour Copenhagen doesn't exist. A young woman disappears without a trace, and three months later, her partner agrees to an unusual arrangement – he will be confined to the flat and interrogated by her father. It gradually emerges that the couple had chosen a radical way of life long before her disappearance, completely isolating themselves from the outside world.
Cinematik will also be screening an unconventional documentary in its Slovak premiere With Dragons Against Demons (Med drager og dæmoner). The Østerskov boarding school uses role-play and imaginative games in its teaching. It is here that young people who have been outsiders all their lives find their place. Over the course of two years, dressed in costumes and armed with swords, they learn to fight not only dragons, but above all their own anxiety, insecurity and fear of growing up.
Psychological Film Studies Paradise (Paradis) It follows a family whose idyllic holiday turns into a series of moral dilemmas. Following a car crash, the couple decide to help an injured man, but the more they get involved, the more they are forced to ask themselves what it actually means to be a good person and how far we are willing to go to help others.
A political war thriller rounds off the programme’s diverse range of genres The Way Home (Vejen hjem). In his desperation, Christian allows himself to be smuggled into war-torn Syria to find his son Adam. The perilous journey forces him to confront not only the brutality of war, but also his own moral limits. If he is to save his son, he will have to sacrifice everything he has believed in until now.
Nils Malmros Retrospective
The Danish section will also feature a retrospective of the director’s work Nils Malmros, curated for Cinematik by Christopher Small. Malmros will be attending the festival in person, and audiences will have a unique opportunity to meet the filmmaker whose films have also had a significant influence on directors such as Tobias Lindholm and Lars von Trier.
Time is one of the major themes in world cinema, and Nils Malmros, born in 1944 in Aarhus, has devoted almost his entire body of work to its passage. Following his masterful films about childhood, culminating in the film The Tree of Knowledge (The Tree of Knowledge, 1981), he increasingly turned to autobiographical stories. In the film Aarhus at night (Aarhus by Night, (, 1989) openly acknowledged being inspired by François Truffaut and his behind-the-scenes films. He later returned to this theme in the film Sadness and joy (Sorrow and Joy, 2013), which reconstructs the circumstances surrounding the making of his earlier film Beauty and the Beast (Beauty and the Beast, 1983).
The retrospective will offer a representative overview of Malmros’s work and demonstrate how sensitively he is able to capture the passage of time, family relationships, coming of age and personal traumas. His later films, such as To know the truth (Let us know the truth, 2002) or Sadness and joy (Sorrow and Joy, (, 2013) focus on his father’s life, his own adolescence, his first love and the painful moments of his marriage.
Malmros's films aren't grand moral dramas, but precise observations of the small gestures, everyday decisions, and ethical dilemmas that form the essence of human life.