The Cinematik International Film Festival In its 21st year, is once again devoting significant attention to contemporary Slovak cinematography. From 8 to 13 September in Pieštany, the festival will present a selection of new Slovak and co-produced films. The Slovak Horizon section will offer eleven titles, including the world premiere of Juraj Štepka's historical drama General Golian. And another six films will be presented in the Cinematik.doc documentary competition section.
Slovak cinematography will be among the prominent parts of the 21st edition of Cinematik's programme. The festival will showcase the latest works by established filmmakers, as well as directorial debuts, feature films and creative documentaries. Several of these will have their Slovak premieres in Piešťany. The festival will also be a place where films that have already been screened at major international festivals will now be presented to the Slovak audience for the first time.
In the section Slovak Horizon a historical drama will have its world premiere, General Golian by director Juraj Štepka. The story takes place in 1944, when, after ten years of futile attempts, the Golian couple have their long-awaited child. Just three weeks later, the Slovak National Uprising breaks out, with Ján Golian set to command it. In a country that is still an ally of Nazi Germany, the couple face a crucial dilemma: whether to fight for the future of the nation or protect their own family.
A new drama will have its Slovak premiere Love by director Marko Škop. Thirty-year-old Anna is looking for a steady anchor in her relationships, but at the same time she is carrying patterns of manipulative behaviour that she has experienced in her relationship with her mother. However, an encounter with a seriously ill patient and his wife allows her to experience a form of love she has never encountered before. This intimate psychological drama thus becomes a story about the need to be loved, dependence on others and a person's ability to change their own behaviour.
A completely different take on adolescence will be offered by a feature-length debut from Martina Buchelová's film Lover, not a fighter. Andrej decides to avoid people and would most prefer to stay only with his granny. However, his carefully planned solitude is disrupted by an encounter with Miša. From a random conversation, a fragile relationship gradually blossoms between two young people who are trying to find their place in a chaotic world. Both formally and content-wise, this original film won the main award at the Karlovy Vary festival in the Proxima competition.
Cinematik will also present a creative documentary If Pigeons Turned to Gold directed by Pepi Lubojacki. Through a personal story, the author of the film seeks to understand the life of her older brother and two cousins who are struggling with homelessness and addiction. Diary footage shot on an iPhone is intertwined with stylised memories, photographs animated using artificial intelligence, and graphic interventions. The film thus creates a distinctive, playful, and at the same time deeply personal reflection on love, control, addiction, and the limits of help. The picture had its international premiere at the 2026 Berlinale, where it also won the award for best documentary film.
What film also brings a strong theme is the thriller 33 Steps by a directing duo, Anna and Šimon Domček. The film is based on the true story of Milan, who was brutally attacked by neo-Nazis at the age of eighteen. Following the attack, he fell into a coma and, during his clinical death, he experienced visions in which the devil tempted him, and Jesus advised him never to take revenge. Several years later, Milan lives with his family in the same town and works as a security guard. When he learns that the man who took part in the attack is being released from prison, his long-standing trauma returns. The film had its world premiere in the Proxima competition at the Karlovy Vary IFF.
The search for one's own identity is the theme of the Czech-Slovak drama City of Fathers directed by Zdeněk Tyc. Richard leads a comfortable life, but is unable to form a close bond with his mother. Following her death and subsequent uncertainty regarding his true father's identity, he sets off to find his roots. He meets men who could be his fathers, and in his imagination tries out which of their traits he might have inherited. The search for his biological father thus gradually transforms into a journey towards self-discovery.
Contemporary Slovak production will also be represented by new authorial voices. Becoming Ema from the director Patricia Drati, To die for life by the Ukrainian director Yuliia Hontaruk, Prayer for the dying directed by Dary Van Dusen and A Pint of Ink from Ester Geislerová is bringing very different perspectives on identity, life crises, family and death.
Documentary triptych To die for life It follows veterans who, after the war in eastern Ukraine in 2014, attempted to return to civilian life. In 2022, however, war re-entered their lives. The film thus follows not only the aftermath of war experiences, but also the impossibility of simply closing the past and starting over. The film had its world premiere at the Karlovy Vary IFF.
Following the world premiere at KVIFF Ester Geislerová is also coming to Cinematik with her new film A Pint of Ink. A daughter's personal journey to portray her father, Peter Geisler – a Japanologist, calligrapher, and artist whose life was full of talent, successes, but also contradictions and failures. Through photographs, calligraphies, letters, poems, archival materials, and the memories of family and friends, a multi-layered portrait emerges of a man who remained in many ways a mystery to his own family.
Cinematik will also present the feature-length debut of director Pavol Hirjak The Last Season. Aspiring boxer Alan spends a lonely summer travelling with a family funfair at Zemplínska Šírava. Amidst the flashing attractions, he dreams of a freer life and recognition, but his plans are disrupted by an encounter with Viki, a lifeguard who is currently dealing with rejection from university and uncertainty about her own future. During the final days of summer, an unexpected bond forms between them, giving both the courage to step out in a new direction.
An exceptional drama will also have a special screening at Cinematik in cooperation with the Slovak Film and Television Academy, Flood directed by Martin Gonda, the Slovak candidate for the Oscar in the best international film category.
The competitive documentary section represents the second prominent line of the Slovak programme Cinematic.doc, which annually brings a selection of the most interesting domestic documentaries. This year it consists of six films Igor and After, Life or Film, We Have to Survive, The Invisible Jan Gogola, My Father's Daughter and Milota.
One of the highlights of the section will be Igor and After, Ivan Ostrochovský's new documentary about the legendary cinematographer Igor Luther. The film was created during the last months of Luther's life and captures his creative personality, as well as the fragile boundary between genius, self-destruction and uncompromising nature. Luther, who was behind the visual style of films by Juraj Jakubisko, Volker Schlöndorff and Andrzej Wajda, looks back on his own life and work in the film. The film had its world premiere at the Karlovy Vary IFF.
Another prominent film of the section, Life or Film, is an intimate portrait of another legend of Czechoslovak cinematography – the director Dušan Hanák. Marek Šulík and Juraj Johanides construct the film from interviews, archival materials and contemporary meetings. In it, Hanák answers the questions he once posed to the protagonists of his own films. The result is a cinematic dialogue of the creator with himself and a reflection on freedom, creativity, ageing and the relationship between life and art.
Environmental documentary We Have to Survive Tomáš Krupa took six years to make across four continents. It takes viewers to the coast of the United States, the Mongolian desert, the Australian town of Coober Pedy, and the icy shores of Greenland. Through the stories of people facing dramatic changes in their environment, it explores human adaptability to a world transforming due to climate change. The film had its world premiere at the Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival.
Document The Invisible Jan Gogola directed by Marek Janičík focuses on a profession that the viewer almost never sees in the finished film – the film dramaturg. Jan Gogola was one of the most prominent Czechoslovak dramaturgs and over the course of his career influenced the form of numerous films. The film itself therefore works with a paradox: it portrays a man whose role was to stand in the background, yet at the same time it shows how profoundly this „invisible“ work can shape the resulting film work.
Family secrets and memory are at the centre of the documentary My Father's Daughter by the director Lea Podhradská. The director decides to track down her sister Deni, who disappeared from her life when she was eight years old. Her absence remained a family taboo for 27 years. The search gradually uncovers forgotten facts and forces the director to reassess a family story she had considered closed. At the same time, the film is a personal journey into the past and an exploration of why a family can simply erase one of its members from its history.
The competition selection concludes with Milota, a documentary portrait of the prominent Slovak photographer Milota Havránková. Created by a collective of authors, the film enters the intimate space of the artist's life, tracing her artistic identity, her relationship with the social and political environment of the 1960s and 1970s, and her ties to younger generations of artists. At the centre, however, remains the family above all – one of the most important sources of her lifelong inspiration.
The Slovak programme will also feature films by the next generation of domestic filmmakers. Once again this year, Cinematik will not overlook student filmmaking and will showcase students’ work in its programme The Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, the Academy of Arts in Banská Bystrica and FAMU in a special selection to mark the 80th anniversary of its foundation. Their films will offer a glimpse into new auteur personalities, themes and cinematic techniques that may shape Slovak cinematography in the future.
Slovak Horizon and Cinematik.doc thus present a comprehensive picture of contemporary domestic cinema at the 21st edition of Cinematik. From historical dramas through intimate psychological stories, debuts and experimental projects to personal portraits of prominent figures in the Slovak and Czechoslovak cinema. Thus the festival will offer a colourful picture of contemporary Slovak cinema in all its genre and thematic diversity.