Slovenská televízia

Folk theatre by Jan Lazorík.

A story about life and problems of eleven years old boy Michal.

The mayor of OSADNE, Mr. Ladislav Mikulasko, is a political record-holder. He has held the position of the village boss for a respectful thirty-six years. His spiritual counterpart, the Orthodox priest, Peter Soroka, has buried fifty people and christened two children over the past five years. The mayor and priest have decided to fight for the survival of the village, together with their wives who are their important shadow advisers.

This simple story is the feature debut for well-known Slovak theater and television director Juraj Nvota. Set in a Slovak village at the turn of the last century, the story teems with passion, and repressed and hidden emotion. It delves into the search for identity, investigating both love and hatred, while dramatizing the tragic relationship between an adolescent girl (Tatiana Pauhofová) and her ambitious father (Ondrej Vetchý). Set against the striking though simple backdrop of a picturesque, even idyllic, landscape - one ostensibly cut off from any important historical, political, or social context whatsoever - the arrival of an unwanted individual evokes the onset of a cruel drama.

A selection of the best scenes and songs from the theatre's rich history, using STV archive material. Stanislav Štepka, an inseparable part of the naive scene and its "father", will accompany us through the 45-year history of the theatre and its characters from the village of Radošina.

A documentary film about the Košice swimming pool, where history came to bathe. Seen through several stories which unfolded between the years 1936 and 2002, the film captures 66 seasons at the popular swimming pool, and the same number of years in the history of Central and Eastern Europe.

The most famous gypsy prima donna, Cinka Panna, lived and worked in the 18th century at the crossroads of two worlds: the aristocracy she played for and the gypsy community in which she lived her private life. A community that had its own rules of existence. In the spirit of tradition, she was sold into marriage. A young woman's desire is to succeed in a traditionally male profession. To become the first prima donna. But the goal requires sacrifice. Historical, narrative, the story captures a universal theme: the struggle for recognition and a place in the world. It reminds us that times and costumes change, but human problems remain... And these are what make the film's story timeless.

A village mayor is trying to bring together local people in their thirties who are still single. 21st century social engineering in a situation documentary by Erika Hníková. Slowly but surely, the Slovak village of Zemplínske Hámre is dying out. But its mayor, a retired general, refuses to give up. In fighting the thirty-year-olds‘ solitude he has used a variety of weapons such as offering a financial incentives for every newborn child or encouraging childbearing via the local PA system. None of it has worked. However, the mayor has a new plan. He decides to organize an evening get-together for singles from all the neighboring villages. Will our heroes find their partners after all?

This year’s gallery of artistically inspiring portraits of uncompromising eccentrics (among them The Hanging of Stuart Cornfeld, Robert Richardson: The White Devil and A Pint of Ink) features another unobtrusive stand-out in the shape of Igor Luther, a key figure of Slovak and European cinematography. Ivan Ostrochovský’s perspective is rare, dynamic and also meditative, while Luther himself co-authored the project during the last few months of his life. Works such as Juraj Jakubisko’s Birds, Orphans and Fools, Volker Schlöndorff’s The Tin Drum and Andrzej Wajda’s Danton, in the persuasive words of their creators, wouldn't have the same timeless energy today if it weren't for Luther's visionary endeavours.

A Slovak film adaptation of the eponymous play Radošina Naive Theatre. Time stood still at a small and neglected Slovak railway station. The locals are stuck in place, know each other well and live according to learned rituals with no prospect of change any time soon. An unexpected impulse to the sleepy community is brought about by the discovery of the corpse of one of the cronies in the station toilets and the arrival of an energetic policewoman to investigate.

Czechoslovakia, 1941. As the war continues, Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich arrives in Nazi-occupied Prague and establishes a regime of terror that will force freedom fighters to act. But the price to pay will be too high.

Slovakia, on the eve of the outbreak of World War II. The family of the young Jewish Martin Friedmann gathers to celebrate his bar mitzvah and make a solemn promise that they will all meet again a year later around the same table; but the storms of war and anti-Semitic fanaticism will lead each of them down very different paths.