The participation of the Slovak Film Institute (SFI) in Art Film in Košice has long since become a tradition. This year the SFI has curated the festival section Our Family Film Treasures, and films from the Institute’s collections will also be screened in the Milan Lasica Award section. In total, Art Film will show ten classics—five feature-length and five short films. The festival opens on Friday 20 June and runs until 27 June.
The Our Family Film Treasures programme—overseen by the Slovak Film Institute—again focuses on showcasing gems from the film archive and making Slovakia’s cinematic heritage accessible. “The line-up not only features representative works of Slovak cinema, it also shines a light on lesser-known, too often overlooked statements on film, especially among short-form works,” says Marián Hausner, Director of the SFI’s National Film Archive. In addition to three feature films, the section will screen a block of five shorts which, according to Hausner, “were made by masters of our documentary tradition. Through them we journey to unusual places in eastern Slovakia and witness the rich variety of people’s lives and activities as captured by documentary filmmakers.” All SFI titles will screen at Kino Úsmev, in the Impulz auditorium.
The short-film block, entitled Shorts from the East, will open with a video introduction by Rudolf Urc—director and chief script editor of the 1960s Newsreel Film and Short Film Studio in Bratislava. Viewers will see five documentaries: The House of Batromij (1984, Fero Fenič) portrays the life of a forestry worker and his family in Nová Sedlica; Cursed Valley (1966, Štefan Kamenický) explores life in the less developed parts of eastern Slovakia; The Train Engine (1967, Karol Skřipský) looks at the forest railway in Remetské Hámre; in Interview (1963, Otakar Krivánek) a blind assistant at the Košice medical faculty talks about his life; and finally Marked by Darkness (1959, Štefan Uher) examines teaching methods and perception at the school for the blind in Levoča.
The section will also feature three classic feature films. Dušan Hanák’s tragicomedy I Love, You Love (1980) is a portrait of people on society’s margins. Shot in 1980 but held up by communist censorship until late 1988, the film met with rapturous acclaim from Czechoslovak critics; in 1989 it won the Silver Bear for Best Director in Berlin and both the Grand Prize and FIPRESCI Prize in Strasbourg.
Dušan Trančík’s When the Stars Were Red (1990) spans the years from the late 1940s to the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion. Through the story of a hesitant conformist, it traces the fates of those who both shaped and fell victim to the moral climate that took hold in 1950s Czechoslovakia, briefly faltered in 1968, then returned to dominate human relations. Made on the cusp of regime change, it was produced by Koliba Studios and part-financed by a French co-production aimed at protecting European film from “Americanisation”.
Peter Solan’s Before Tonight Is Over (1965) is one of the first Czech-Slovak existentialist films—a psychological probe into the inner lives of people spending the night in an opulent nightclub. It follows two young office workers saving all year for a few carefree days, two apprentice plumbers chasing erotic adventure, a construction boss who has embezzled his crew’s wages, an unrecognised inventor, and a former British Army major whose post-war political persecution has led to alcoholism. The film explores the longing to escape the endless cycle of work and duty, sketching a kaleidoscope of characters whose generational traumas are impossible to transfer.
The Milan Lasica Award section will screen two SFI titles starring this year’s laureate Ivan Mistrík. Archimedes’ Principle (1964, Andrej Lettrich) is a contemporary satire that pillories careerism, dictatorial manners, ingratiation and servility, following the absurd rise—and moral fall—of a minor clerk promoted by mistake. Ján Lacko’s comedy Happiness Comes on Sunday (1958) revolves around sports-betting enthusiasts whose shared obsession lands them in a variety of awkward—and often comic—situations, quickly shattering their dreams of easy riches.
The Slovak Film Institute will also be represented in the festival’s Industry programme. During Art Film, the Košice Artforum bookshop will host a panel discussion on publishing film literature in Slovakia. Peter Dubecký (SFI Director-General), film scholar Mária Ferenčuhová (SFI Research Department), editor and Kino-Ikon journal chief Martin Kaňuch, and aesthetician/philosopher Peter Michalovič will talk about film periodicals, books, DVDs and Blu-rays, as well as the online presence of Slovak cinema. The discussion aims to highlight that thinking about film—grasping both domestic and world cinema, understanding historical contexts and the complexity of current trends—is no simple task. Throughout Saturday, Sunday and Monday, visitors can also find an SFI sales stand in Kulturpark, offering many of its publications at discounted prices.
More information on the Art Film IFF Košice can be found on the festival’s official website: https://iffartfilm.com/
FB event – Panel Discussion on Publishing Film Literature in Slovakia: https://www.facebook.com/events/1616333765698995/
SOURCE: Slovak Film Institute
31st IFF ART FILM is made possible thanks to
Organizer: ART FILM FEST s.r.o.;
Co-organizers: Mesto Košice, K13 – Košické kultúrne centrá, Visit Košice, ART FILM FEST n.o., LGM s.r.o., FORLIVE;
Financial support: Audiovizuálny fond a Nadácia SPP
The festival is co-financed by Košický samosprávny kraj through the Terra Incognita programme;
Main partners: národná lotériová spoločnosť TIPOS, Slovenská elektrizačná prenosová sústava a.s., CODES Brand House;
Main media partners: TV JOJ, Pravda, Eurotelevízia;
Automotive partner: Moris Slovakia
Advertising partners: Best Press, U. S. Steel Košice, ANTIK telecom, Kino Úsmev, LOKO TRANS Media, CORE Labs, Technická univerzita v Košiciach;
Technology partners: NOV, ZEBRA, Deutsche Telekom Systems Solutions Slovakia, T4H, LEDGO, DELTA OnLine, ARICOMA, TelekomCLOUD;
Official suppliers: DKC Veritas, Kaviareň Slávia, PLOOM, Krušovice BOHÉM, pramenitá voda Lucka, DOMOS SLOVAKIA, Reštaurácia Contessa, Aupark Shopping Center Košice, Pierre Baguette, Julius Meinl, Red Fox Golf Club; Official wine: Kubbo Select a Ostrožovič;
Media partners: JOJ play, JOJ 24, Film Europe, Rádio KOŠICE, Aktuality.sk, Forbes, Startitup.sk, Korzár, Slovenka, SITA, TASR, Mediaboard, See & Go, ČSFD, BigMedia, Košice City Guide, Košice v skratke, Film.sk, diva.sk, koktejl.sk, zenskyweb.sk, MOJAkultúra, kino Sterio, Dopravný podnik mesta Košice, AHOJ TV;
Partners: JOJ Cinema, Jojko, Veľvyslanectvo Indie v Bratislave, Carmeuse Slovakia, DDDental, TINY Houses, ECO Technologies, Letisko Košice, Local Nomad Tours, Slovenský filmový ústav, Taper, YumEarth, Puella vône, Kvety Garomi, čLOVEčina hra, Rakúske kultúrne fórum, TESCO Store SK, CPK Transport, Tabačka Kulturfabrik, King Media, Východoslovenské múzeum v Košiciach, Letní filmová škola, KPK Reklama, MIHYRING, Zoberma taxi, Hair Factory Košice, Velvyslanectví České republiky v Bratislavě;
Gastronomic partners: Pub u Kohúta, El Nacional, OhniskO Fire Dining & Brew Bar, Maiko Sushi, Macarons Košice, šum vináreň, Café de Paris, Casa Trade – Casablanca cafe, TATRATEA, Moritz Eis.
