{"id":48388,"date":"2026-05-30T11:30:39","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T09:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iffartfilm.com\/?p=48388"},"modified":"2026-05-30T11:12:56","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T09:12:56","slug":"sfi-family-film-silver-digitally-restored-slovak-film-classics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iffartfilm.com\/en\/blog\/news\/2026\/05\/sfi-family-film-silver-digitally-restored-slovak-film-classics\/","title":{"rendered":"SFI: Family Film Silver \u2013 digitally restored Slovak film classics"},"content":{"rendered":"

The International Film Festival IFF ART FILM Ko\u0161ice (19 \u2013 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 \u2013 from immediate post-war documentaries and indictments from 1945 and 1946, through the New Wave era to late socialism \u2013 will offer a mix of feature films, documentaries and propaganda newsreels, many of them by key figures of Slovak cinema.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u2019s screens titles from the Golden Fund of Slovak Cinema, almost all of which have undergone digital restoration in the SFI laboratories. This year\u2019s selection was put together by film historians and theorists \u2013 Martin Pal\u00fach (the festival\u2019s artistic director), Martin Ka\u0148uch (curator of the International Short Film Competition) and Mari\u00e1n Hausner (director of the SFI Film Archive).<\/p>\n

Post-war documentaries and indictments (1945 \u2013 1948)<\/h2>\n

Four titles in the selection capture cinema\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

For Freedom \/ Za slobodu (Pa\u013eo Bielik, 1945, 18 min., documentary)<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

They Are Personally Responsible: For Crimes Against Humanity! \/ S\u00fa osobne zodpovedn\u00ed: za zlo\u010diny proti \u013eudskosti! (J\u00e1n Kad\u00e1r, 1946, 7 min., documentary)<\/strong><\/p>\n

A montage indictment shot by the future Oscar-winning director J\u00e1n Kad\u00e1r in preparation for the post-war trials. The voice-over was recorded by Ladislav Chud\u00edk.<\/p>\n

They Are Personally Responsible: For Betrayal of the National Uprising! \/ S\u00fa osobne zodpovedn\u00ed: za zradu na n\u00e1rodnom povstan\u00ed! (J\u00e1n Kad\u00e1r, 1946, 8 min., documentary)<\/strong><\/p>\n

The second part of Kad\u00e1r\u2019s two-part montage documentary, which returned to the personal responsibility of representatives of the wartime regime for the betrayal of the uprising.<\/p>\n

A Short Episode \/ Epiz\u00f3dka (Leopold Lahola, 1948, 11 min., fiction)<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The coming of age of Slovak cinema (1959)<\/h2>\n

The end of the 1950s brought the first generationally distinctive cinematic gestures \u2013 both in documentary and in genre fiction.<\/p>\n

A Man from M\u00e1linec \/ \u010clovek z M\u00e1linca (Rudolf Urc, 1959, 16 min., documentary)<\/strong><\/p>\n

A debut documentary portrait by the later rector of the Academy of Performing Arts (V\u0160MU) Rudolf Urc about the partisan Julo Kali\u010diak, who lost both legs during the war, learned to walk again on prostheses and became the best tractor driver in the Lu\u010denec district. The film was selected among UNESCO\u2019s representative works.<\/p>\n

The Man Who Did Not Return \/ Mu\u017e, ktor\u00fd sa nevr\u00e1til (Peter Solan, 1959, 85 min., fiction)<\/strong><\/p>\n

A detective film with noir elements about the investigation of the mysterious murder of the engineer Kovalsk\u00fd. Peter Solan gradually builds a dark atmosphere and, through testimonies and flashbacks, uncovers the fates of the victim and his surroundings.<\/p>\n