The Cinematik International Film Festival, which is among the most significant and most attended film events in Slovakia, traditionally positions itself as a venue for exclusive premieres of Slovak and co-produced films. This will be no different during the jubilee 20th edition, which will take place in Piešťany from 10 to 15 September. The festival will open with the Slovak premiere of director Tereza Nvotovà's new film. Father, the programme will also offer further titles featuring creators such as Caravan, Above is the sky, in the valley am I, Rather go mad in the wilderness, Great patriotic trip, Summer School 2001 and many more.
We place great importance on showcasing new Slovak and co-produced titles and are very pleased with the high interest from creators. This year too, the quality of our cinematography is surprising, both in terms of form and content. At Cinematik we will screen the most valuable film works of the domestic cinematography this year.” states programme team member Peter Konečný.
The wide selection of premiere screenings at this year's Cinematik will kick off on the very first day of the festival with the highly anticipated drama by director Tereza Nvotová. Father, which arrives directly from the Venice Film Festival. The film is inspired by real events in Slovakia and abroad, and it offers the story of a father who makes a tragic mistake. For this, he then bears consequences not only within his relationship with his wife, friendships and work relationships, but also within court proceedings, and most importantly, and perhaps first and foremost, within his relationship with himself. Milan Ondrík and Dominika Morávková will star in the main roles, thus bringing a perhaps surprising story of love and marital partnership tested by perhaps the toughest trial.
Further premieres of important domestic and co-produced film novelties await visitors to the festival in the "What We've Got" section, dedicated to the latest Slovak cinematography. Cinematik will also present a Slovak-Czech-Italian title in its Slovak premiere with the creators in attendance. Caravan, which had its world premiere at the prestigious Cannes. The caravan will bring a theme to domestic cinema that has not yet been depicted in such an unconventional way. It is the story of a woman bound to her child by immense love. However, this love is also a great burden for her. „The theme of the film Caravan is deeply personal to me. My son was born with Down's syndrome and gradually developed autism as well. However, Caravan isn't personal on the level of a specific story – what's personal about it is the desire to escape, the need to rebel against the role of a mother to a child with a disability. I wanted to make a film that, despite its difficult theme, is hopeful, full of lightness and humour – albeit bittersweet., The director is talking about the film Zuzana Kirchnerová.
In an exclusive premiere, Cinematik will also screen the Slovak-Czech co-production film by director Katarína Gramatová, which had its world premiere at the Tokyo International Film Festival. Here is the sky, in the valley I am. Viewers can expect a captivating, intimate coming-of-age drama inspired by real events from the so-called „hungry“ Slovak valleys. The film tells 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. Summer days pass slowly: riding mopeds, petty mischief with friends, occasional errands 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 circulate 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 Cinematiku programme also features the fresh debut of Czech director and screenwriter of Vietnamese origin, Dušan Duong, titled Summer School 2001. Seventeen-year-old Kien, with his bright red hair, returns to his family at the Cheb market after ten years in Vietnam. Instead of a warm welcome, however, he is met by an estranged father, a worried mother, and a younger brother who offers him no quarter. While ironing Pokémon onto t-shirts, drilling his Czech, and dating by the lake, a secret begins to surface, the revelation of which will turn life at the market upside down. Told with lightness and humour, Dušan Duong's film offers an authentic look into the community through the eyes of the first Vietnamese generation to grow up in the Czech Republic.
The festival's programme team has included an unforgettable puppet film, a Czech-Slovak-Slovenian-French co-production, among the domestic preview screenings. Tales from the Enchanted Garden, which has already been featured at major festivals such as Annecy and Berlinale. Little Zuzanka arrives with her two siblings to visit their recently widowed and sad grandfather. The evening before bed, Zuzanka decides to conjure up fairy tales for her younger brother Tomík from Grandma's straw hat, using randomly selected words – exactly like their beloved Grandma used to tell them. This intelligent family film was realised by a quartet of directors: David Súkup, Patrik Pašš, Leon Vidmar, and Jean-Claude Rozec.
In the competition section Cinematik.doc, dedicated to the latest documentary filmmaking, seven titles will be presented at the festival. The winner of the 59th Karlovy Vary Festival will also have its exclusive Slovak premiere at Cinematik. Better to go mad in the wilderness Slovak director Miro Remo. The film loosely develops the theme of the book of the same name by Aleš Palán and Jan Šibík about Šumava recluses. The film's guides are the twins František and Ondřej Klišík – eternal children living in a magical world with their pets. Together they share every day, every routine, every thought. On the outside, they appear to be mirrors of each other, but inside they are two completely different souls. Years of inseparable cohabitation are beginning to become too much for them. Franta dreams of escape, of flying, of the world beyond the walls that bind him. Ondra remains rooted in what he knows intimately. Is it even possible to escape when the whole world wears your own face?
The rich selection of premieres at this year's Cinematik IFF will be further supplemented by the film Unpaid leave – a creatively original new film by director Paula Ďurinová, which has also been screened at the FIDMarseille and Karlovy Vary festivals. Some crises don't arrive suddenly – we live through them quietly, long-term, and without pause. Unpaid Leave is a film about the need to stop. In it, director Paula Ďurinová transforms her personal experience with burnout into a collective sharing and explores how exhaustion is not only experienced but also shaped under the pressure of constant performance. The intimate narrative set in Berlin combines voice messages, archives, and recordings from group meetings into a collage that reveals a system where falling ill means failing. „Having experienced burnout myself, I felt a strong need to understand what had happened to me. Gradually, I began to engage with critiques of the privatisation of mental health and joined a Berlin-based collective that focused on the political dimensions of anxiety in late capitalism. I wanted to create space to pause – a place where individual experiences could be collectively processed and their systemic causes revealed.“, says director Ďurinová.
However, visitors to Cinematik should certainly not miss the opportunity to be the first in Slovakia to see the latest film from the acclaimed Pavol Barabaš. Everyone needs their tribe. What connects us as humans? What makes us happy and content? What gives us purpose and direction? The answer is one word: community. It is our natural need, deeply ingrained within us. It is our strength, drawing us to family, friends, and those who are like us, sharing the same values, interests, and goals.
The festival programme also includes a film essay. Chronicle directed by Martin Kollár. The film captures everyday stories and creates a collective portrait of contemporary reality – not just as 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.
The Cinematik.doc competition section will also feature Zuzana Piussi's latest documentary. The voice of the forest opening the topic of what a healthy forest actually needs. As well as Dušan Trančík's stylised documentary-fiction project Monaco Event representing the most successful Czechoslovak State Security (StB) espionage operation from 1948-1953, Daniel Dluhý's sensitive debut Alenka and the Miracle from a Foreign Land - the true story of a young Roma girl, Alenka, who didn't give up and managed to defy the fate of thousands of Roma children in Slovakia.
The 20th Cinematik will also screen a discussed and highly anticipated Czech-Slovak documentary film in its special Slovak premiere Great Patriotic Trip Directed by Robin Kvapil. Do you think the war in Ukraine is a hoax? That the media is lying about the death toll and the consequences of the „special military operation“ in Ukraine? This was the appeal from 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 to Donbas with the crew.