At Art Film Fest’s upcoming nineteenth edition, fans of Slovak cinema will be treated to a bumper crop of locally-produced films, including several premieres and the work of talented young directors, all in Tren\u010dianske Teplice and Tren\u010d\u00edn from June 17 to 25. <\/p>\n
The festival’s Slovak Season<\/b> section will feature three feature films and four documentaries, while this year’s Slovak Season Special: Best of Slovak Student Films<\/b> will include a total of thirty-three shorts from three Slovak art schools. <\/p>\n
Among the feature films is one of Slovakia’s most anticipated pictures, four years in the making: "Apricot Island<\/b>" (Marhu\u013eov\u00fd ostrov). This feature debut of director Peter Bebjak, whose filmography includes serials such as "Mesto tie\u0148ov" (City of Shadows), "Condemned" (Ods\u00faden\u00e9) and "Dr. Ludsky", looks at the co-existence of southern Slovakia’s varied ethnic groups. Szidi Tobias stars as an ethereal woman in a desolate hamlet who arouses the passions of two brothers. No one else can guess what is going on between them; their hidden and suddenly awakened love, driving them hopelessly towards a tragic end, is solely witnessed by the breathtaking wilderness surrounding the Danubian backwaters. <\/p>\n
"Apricot Island" was the Slovak Film and Television Academy’s nominee for the 2011 European Film Award. <\/p>\n
Art Film Fest’s Slovak Season will also include features such as "Time of Grimaces<\/b>" (\u010cas grim\u00e1s), a biopic on iconoclastic sculptor Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, and "Massacre of Devinska<\/b>" (Dev\u00ednsky masaker), a docudrama investigating \u013dubom\u00edr Harman’s killing spree in Bratislava’s Dev\u00ednska Nov\u00e1 Ves district. <\/p>\n
Audiences can look forward to documentaries from well-known filmmakers, such as We’ll Talk About It in Heaven<\/b> (Povieme si to v nebi) from the TV series Unwanted Children Twelve Years Later<\/b> (Nechcen\u00e9 deti po dvan\u00e1stich rokoch), the story of a family who adopted a visually, mentally and physically impaired autistic girl. Director Jaro Vojtek doesn’t shy away from the family’s years-long struggle to adapt to their new life with Nikolka, but he also captures the dramatic improvement in the girl’s state of mind afforded by her new life. <\/p>\n
In the same series’ "I Wanted to Be a Mother<\/b>" (Chcela som by\u0165 matka), director Marek \u0160ul\u00edk focuses on a woman who took brothers Jozef and Karol into her care sixteen years ago. The boys came from a broken home, suffering from health problems, lack of hygiene and destructive tendencies at the time Jarmila adopted them. The new mother’s efforts have nonetheless paid off, with Jozef accepted into university, but Karol still battles with his childhood traumas. Jarmila admits to a constant, terrible fear of losing the boys, making the story’s tragic end that much more disturbing. <\/p>\n
The section will also premiere two parts of the television series "Slovak Cinema<\/b>" (Slovenk\u00e9 kino), where young documentarists explore the past and present of our country’s film industry. <\/p>\n
The first, "Ghost in the Machine<\/b>" (Duch v stroji) is a glimpse into the inner workings of renowned Slovak cinematographers. Using interviews with prominent filmmakers, visual reconstructions and film clips, director Robert Kirchhoff attempts to determine what makes the Slovak school of cinematography unique. <\/p>\n
The series’ second part, "J\u00e1no\u0161\u00edk – The Stolen Hero<\/b>" (J\u00e1no\u0161\u00edk \u2013 vykr\u00e1dan\u00fd hrdina), is a portrait of perhaps Slovakia’s most mythical national hero, an inseparable part of the country’s cinematic landscape. The filmmakers examine J\u00e1no\u0161\u00edk’s film incarnations as well as modern-day folklore surrounding the hero and even his international dimension.<\/p>\n
This year’s Art Film Fest marks the debut of a new programme section: Slovak Season Special: Best of Slovak Student Films. "Last year’s festival featured a similar section, celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the Film and Television Faculty at Bratislava’s V\u0160MU, and the idea generated an enormously positive response," says Art Film Fest’s director Peter N\u00e1gel. <\/p>\n
This year, in addition to V\u0160MU, the opportunity to present their students’ latest pictures was extended to Bansk\u00e1 Bystrica’s Academy of Arts and Trnava’s University of St. Cyril and Methodius. A total of thirty-three short films will offer viewers a comprehensive overview of Slovakia’s young, talented filmmakers. <\/p>\n
Slovak Season is presented by SANTOVKA \u2013 a mineral water legend.
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Art Film Fest 2011 \u2013 the 19th Tren\u010dianske Teplice\/Tren\u010d\u00edn International Film Festival is made possible by the financial support of the Audiovisual Fund.<\/p>\n
Organizers:<\/b> ART FILM, n.o., FORZA, a.s. <\/p>\n
Co-organizers:<\/b> The Town of Tren\u010dianske Teplice, Tren\u010dianske Teplice Health Spa<\/p>\n
General Sponsors:<\/b> Omnia Holding SE, AquaCity Poprad<\/p>\n
Main Sponsors:<\/b> Tatra banka, Slovnaft, VUJE, OHL \u017dS<\/p>\n
Official Transport Provider:<\/b> Lancia <\/p>\n
Logistics Sponsor:<\/b> DHL <\/p>\n
Free student cinepasses provided by:<\/b> Prv\u00e1 stavebn\u00e1 sporite\u013e\u0148a (First Housing-Construction Savings Bank)<\/p>\n
Sponsors:<\/b> TIPOS, Ernst & Young, AVI studio, Penzi\u00f3n Baske, Cinemax, Santovka<\/p>\n
Official Suppliers:<\/b> Pilsner Urquell, HUBERT J.E., the festival Pax Spa Hotel,
A Briliant, Philips, Esterle&Esterle, MF team, LampART, Lenovo, Stredn\u00e1 odborn\u00e1 \u0161kola polygrafick\u00e1 (Vocational School of Printing)<\/p>\n
Main Media Sponsors:<\/b> Slovensk\u00e1 telev\u00edzia, telev\u00edzia JOJ, R\u00e1dio FM, Pravda, zoznam.sk<\/p>\n
Media Sponsors:<\/b> Central Europe Television, Kino CS, Muzika CS, Doku CS, R\u00e1dio Europa 2, R\u00e1dio Hit FM, .t\u00fd\u017ede\u0148, Eurotelev\u00edzia, Pardon, OK!, Kine\u010dko, Kam do mesta, Focus, Boomerang Media, SITA, moviemania.sk, BlueSky, Telev\u00edzia Tren\u010dianske Teplice, Film New Europe, euroAWK, Willmark<\/p>\n
Partners:<\/b> The City of Tren\u010d\u00edn, the Tren\u010d\u00edn Self-governing Region, the Embassy of Israel in Slovakia, the European Commission Representation in Slovakia, the Embassy of the USA in Bratislava, the Office of the Embassy of Sweden in Bratislava, Sodec Quebec, the Slovak Film Institute, Cinecitta, the Italian Cultural Institute in Bratislava, Omnia, RONA, Celtima SK, jazykovepobyty.sk, Hotel Fl\u00f3ra, versity<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At Art Film Fest’s upcoming nineteenth edition, fans of Slovak cinema will be treated to a bumper crop of locally-produced