On Tuesday, 23 June 2026, the 32nd IFF Art Film Košice held the world premiere of the feature debut The Last Season, written and directed by Pavol Hirjak. Kino Veritas was the first venue to host the story of two young people who meet during the last three days of summer at Lake Zemplínska Šírava. The lead roles were played by Mária Miklošková and Tadeáš Moravec, with a supporting performance by veteran actor Marko Igonda. The film was produced by Vladimír Sabadoš. The festival screened the film again on Thursday, 25 June, at Kunsthalle Košice.
Pavol Hirjak chose for his debut the region he comes from. “Firstly, because I’m from there and I know it intimately, and also because Šírava is underused in cinema. It’s a very interesting place,” he explained the decision to set the story at Lake Zemplínska Šírava. The path to filmmaking did not lead directly through directing, before studying at the Prague FAMU, Hirjak graduated in medicine. “Thanks to medicine, you get to know a person better, not only physically but also psychologically,” he added. He deliberately chose a feature-length format for his graduation film: “That was the plan from the moment I wanted to apply to FAMU. I wanted to graduate with a feature film, because I saw it could be done.” The casting took half a year and went through four rounds in Prague, Bratislava and Košice. Hirjak deliberately invited the two leads into the final round together, to test whether the chemistry between them worked.
The role of Viki marks the first lead role in a feature film for Mária Miklošková. The coming-of-age theme was personally close to her: “I shot this film in my second year of university, so I already had a certain sense of what I wanted to do with my life. But it wasn’t that long ago that I had just finished high school and was wondering what to do next. Many people around me are still asking that question, and so am I sometimes, even though I study what I love,” she said. She singled out the summer heat as the toughest part of shooting: “There were days when it was 35 °C outside and we were filming in the cabin of a boat where it must have been 45. Some things were also difficult because it was the first film for most of us on the crew, so we were still finding our way. I think it pushed us all forward a lot.” Her closing message to young aspiring actresses: “Above all, live your life. Live it to the fullest, because those experiences are what will allow you to translate acting into entirely different dimensions.”
The other lead is played by Tadeáš Moravec, who finds personal resonance in the story. “I think many young people can identify with it. At the age when one is finishing high school and has to set out on their own path, we often feel that we might disappoint our surroundings, or that we have to do something to earn respect. I went through this completely,” he explained. His character dreams of a career as a boxer. Moravec himself trains in Muay Thai but has never competed, which came in useful for the film: “The character significantly overestimates his abilities.” He saw the key to inhabiting the role in working with the text: “The most important thing is to read the script a hundred times. Everything is in there. And since we were able to spend some time at Šírava before shooting, we absorbed the environment. The film takes place at the end of summer, we arrived at the beginning of it, so I actually lived through the whole summer there.” Moravec comes from a family of actors, yet it was precisely that which long kept him away from the profession. “I was a big introvert and could not imagine expressing myself in this way. I always felt closer to film, to living different kinds of adventures,” he admitted. He did not come away from the shoot with memories alone: “We literally left blood and sweat there. I cut my leg open, had to go to hospital, had scrapes. But spending that beautiful summer outdoors with young people I got along with was wonderful.”
Veteran actor Marko Igonda joined the film in a supporting role. Working on debuts is for him a conscious choice. “Young people are trying to make a good film. It’s an authorial work, they had to raise all the resources themselves and bring it to life. To be part of that is, after everything I’ve been through, a great gift and an enormous honour for me. That’s the alpha and the omega of why I’m here and why I support them,” he explained. From the premiere itself, what stayed with him most was the sense of coming home: “Most of these filmmakers are from here. The film will go on its journey, but they brought it back home, to their roots. The audience was full of family members, friends, people who know Šírava and feel what kind of energy it has. I told them to treasure that moment, because such feedback may never come again,” Igonda added. He addressed an appeal to young filmmakers: “Do not let yourself be swallowed by the machinery that today, in this profession, sometimes feels almost necessary for survival. Very few individuals can resist it, it is very demanding. But if you hold out, you can live in the freedom I live in.”
Other cast members of The Last Season include Bronislava Kováčiková, František Beleš, Diana Semanová, Mário Mačičák, Juraj Stebila, Vanessa Weisz and Katarína Krajčovičová. The second screening on Thursday, 25 June, at Kunsthalle Košice was introduced by director Pavol Hirjak and producer Vladimír Sabadoš.
The 32nd IFF ART FILM is made possible thanks to the support of:
Main organizer: ART FILM FEST s.r.o.
Co-organizers: City of Košice, K13 – Košice Cultural Centres, Visit Košice, ART FILM FEST, n.o.
With the financial support of: Audiovisual Fund
The project was co-financed by the Košice Self-governing Region from the Terra Incognita program
Main partners: CODES Brand House, H2O FUND SICAV, Fors – stav
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, Technical University of Košice
Technological partners: NOV, ZEBRA, Deutsche Telekom Systems Solutions Slovakia, DELTA OnLine, ARICOMA, Datacomp
Official suppliers: DKC Veritas, PLOOM, DOMOS SLOVAKIA, Reštaurácia Contessa, Natura, Kinley, Budweiser Budvar, Julius Meinl
Official wine: KubBo Select, Ostrožovič
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, BigMedia, Kino Sterio, Košice City Guide, Košice V Skratke, MOJAkultura.sk, Česko-Slovenská filmová databáze – ČSFD, Filmsk.sk, diva.sk, koktejl.sk, zenskyweb.sk, Naše Košice
Partners: JOJ Cinema, Jojko, Slovak Film Institute, WITKOWITZ SLOVAKIA, DDDental, CK TUI ReiseCenter Slovensko, Wallonie-Bruxelles International.be, Taper, ECO Technologies, Aupark Shopping Center Košice, Košice Public Transport Company, Košice International Airport, YumEarth, Rent2Eat, CPK Transport, iWish.sk, Kvety Garomi, Hair Factory Košice, Face up! Studio by Michaela Petroci, Panta Rhei, ARTFORUM, LOCAL NOMAD, East Slovak Museum in Košice, MIHYRING
