The International Film Festival IFF ART FILM Košice (19 – 25 June 2026) will present ten films from the collections of the Slovak Film Institute in the section Family Film Silver, with almost all of them digitally restored. A chronological cross-section across four decades – from immediate post-war documentaries and indictments from 1945 and 1946, through the New Wave era to late socialism – will offer a mix of feature films, documentaries and propaganda newsreels, many of them by key figures of Slovak cinema.
The Family Film Silver section is a traditional part of the IFF ART FILM programme. Curated under the auspices of the Slovak Film Institute (SFI), it brings to the festival’s screens titles from the Golden Fund of Slovak Cinema, almost all of which have undergone digital restoration in the SFI laboratories. This year’s selection was put together by film historians and theorists – Martin Palúch (the festival’s artistic director), Martin Kaňuch (curator of the International Short Film Competition) and Marián Hausner (director of the SFI Film Archive).
Post-war documentaries and indictments (1945 – 1948)
Four titles in the selection capture cinema’s response to the Second World War, the Slovak National Uprising and the period immediately afterwards, when the post-war trials of representatives of the wartime Slovak state were being prepared.
For Freedom / Za slobodu (Paľo Bielik, 1945, 18 min., documentary)
A film by one of the founders of Slovak cinema, composed mainly of authentic material shot during the Slovak National Uprising. Bielik took part in the uprising as a propaganda worker, and the film became a key archival source for later documentaries about the Slovak National Uprising.
They Are Personally Responsible: For Crimes Against Humanity! / Sú osobne zodpovední: za zločiny proti ľudskosti! (Ján Kadár, 1946, 7 min., documentary)
A montage indictment shot by the future Oscar-winning director Ján Kadár in preparation for the post-war trials. The voice-over was recorded by Ladislav Chudík.
They Are Personally Responsible: For Betrayal of the National Uprising! / Sú osobne zodpovední: za zradu na národnom povstaní! (Ján Kadár, 1946, 8 min., documentary)
The second part of Kadár’s two-part montage documentary, which returned to the personal responsibility of representatives of the wartime regime for the betrayal of the uprising.
A Short Episode / Epizódka (Leopold Lahola, 1948, 11 min., fiction)
An anti-war short with which Leopold Lahola opened his brief but distinctive directing career before the political pressures of the late 1940s ended his work at home and drove him into exile.
The coming of age of Slovak cinema (1959)
The end of the 1950s brought the first generationally distinctive cinematic gestures – both in documentary and in genre fiction.
A Man from Málinec / Človek z Málinca (Rudolf Urc, 1959, 16 min., documentary)
A debut documentary portrait by the later rector of the Academy of Performing Arts (VŠMU) Rudolf Urc about the partisan Julo Kaličiak, who lost both legs during the war, learned to walk again on prostheses and became the best tractor driver in the Lučenec district. The film was selected among UNESCO’s representative works.
The Man Who Did Not Return / Muž, ktorý sa nevrátil (Peter Solan, 1959, 85 min., fiction)
A detective film with noir elements about the investigation of the mysterious murder of the engineer Kovalský. Peter Solan gradually builds a dark atmosphere and, through testimonies and flashbacks, uncovers the fates of the victim and his surroundings.
Avant-garde experiment (1970)
Lilli Marlen (Peter Mihálik, 1970, 6 min., documentary)
A short essayistic collage by one of the most important Slovak film critics and theorists, Peter Mihálik, based on a concept by Dušan Hanák. The film sets authentic archival footage from the Vietnam War against the famous song Lili Marleen performed by Marlene Dietrich.
Slovak documentary in the era of normalisation (1981)
Kangchenjunga (Ján Piroh, 1981, 64 min., documentary)
A record of the fourth Czechoslovak mountaineering expedition to the third-highest mountain in the world (8,598 m), led by Ivan Gálfy. Piroh’s first feature-length documentary won several international awards in 1982 – the Grand Prize Trento Golden Eagle, first prize at the mountain film festival in San Sebastián and the main prize in Banff, Canada.
Air Temperature 50 °C, Humidity 97 % / Teplota vzduchu 50 °C, vlhkosť 97 % (Ján Piroh, 1981, 23 min., documentary)
A travel report by Ján Piroh, who after the Himalayas also turned to tropical extremes and captured on camera the work of Slovaks in demanding climatic conditions.
End of the 1980s (1988)
F.T. on the Road / F.T. na cestách (Dušan Rapoš, 1988, 76 min., musical fiction)
A musical film from the end of the socialist era in which the initials F.T. stand for “Future Terrestrial” – a parodic counterpart to Spielberg’s E.T. The film combines eighteen song-based mini-stories performed by the leading Slovak and Czech pop acts of the time into a single feature-length format.
Section curators
The Family Film Silver programme was put together by Martin Palúch and Martin Kaňuch in cooperation with Marián Hausner from the National Film Archive of the Slovak Film Institute.
Cinepasses for the 32nd IFF ART FILM Košice are available at aff.cinepass.sk.
The 32nd IFF ART FILM is made possible thanks to the support of:
Main organizer: ART FILM FEST s.r.o.
Co-organizers: Mesto Košice, K13 – Košické kultúrne centrá, Visit Košice, ART FILM FEST, n.o.
With the financial support of: Audiovizuálny fond
The project was co-financed by the Košice Self-governing Region from the Terra Incognita program
Main partners: CODES Brand House, H2O FUND SICAV
Automotive partner: AUTO-VALAS
Official hotel: Hotel Yasmin
Main media partners: TV JOJ, Pravda, Eurotelevízia
Sponsors: U. S. Steel Košice, ANTIK Telecom, Kino Úsmev, LOKO TRANS Media, CORE Labs, Technická univerzita v Košiciach
Technological partners: NOV, ZEBRA, Deutsche Telekom Systems Solutions Slovakia, DELTA OnLine, ARICOMA, Datacomp
Official suppliers: DKC Veritas, PLOOM, DOMOS SLOVAKIA, Reštaurácia Contessa, Natura, Kinley, Julius Meinl, Aupark Shopping Center Košice
Media partners: JOJ play, JOJ 24, Film Europe Media Company, Rádio KOŠICE, Aktuality.sk, Forbes, Startitup.sk, Korzár, Slovenka, SITA, TASR, Mediaboard, AHOJ TV, See & Go, Česko-Slovenská filmová databáze – ČSFD, Filmsk.sk, BigMedia, Kino Sterio, Košice City Guide, Košice V Skratke, MOJAkultura.sk, diva.sk, koktejl.sk, zenskyweb.sk
Partners: JOJ Cinema, Jojko, Slovenský filmový ústav, DDDental, CK TUI ReiseCenter Slovensko, Taper, ECO Technologies, Letisko Košice, Rent2Eat, CPK Transport, iWish.sk, Kvety Garomi, Hair Factory Košice, LOCAL NOMAD, MIHYRING
Gastronomic partners: Pub u Kohúta, OhniskO Fire Dining & Brew Bar, MAIKO SUSHI, Kaviareň Slávia, El Nacional, Tabačka Kulturfabrik, Casa Trade – Casablanca cafe, Macarons Košic
