19 February (Mon) - 5 p.m. - 7 p.m. - Only a Day (1988, 85 min.) **
20 February (Tue) - 7 p.m. - 9 p.m. - The Assistant (1981, 91 min.) ***
21 February (Wed) - 7 p.m. - 9 p.m. - Night Riders (1981, 88 min.) **
22 February (Thur) - 7 p.m. - 9 p.m. - A Path across the Danube (1989, 89 min.) ****
23 February (Fri) - 5 p.m. - 7 p.m. - She Kept Crying for the Moon (1982, 78 min.) **
The goal of the series is to introduce students in Slovak language of the Master's MIREES program to Slovak cinematography. The 1980s are considered one of the best decades for Slovak film (in contrast to more popular Czech cinematography). The selection of movies will provide the viewer with a better understanding of Slovak history and culture. The first and last evenings are dedicated to lighter genres, while the three sessions in between focus on traumatic moments in Czechoslovak history.
All movies have English subtitles. A discussion session will follow after each movie in English (and/or Italian and/or Slovak).
This event is prepared in collaboration with the Slovak Cultural Institute in Rome ( www.sirome.mfa.sk).
For more information, contact Dagmar Roberts
A joint work of three debuting directors, the film is about former rock musicians, members of a banned rock band, who were forced to exchange their idealism of the 1960s for family life and ordinary jobs in Socialist Czechoslovakia. The film shows one day of their lives full of small lies, compromises and morally doubtful decisions. This is one of the most significant reflections on the time of perestroika.
A film based on a successful novel by the Slovak writer Ladislav Ballek. This is the story of a family that moved to the Hungarian-speaking south of Slovakia after WWII and acquired a prosperous butcher business, but also inherited the previous assistant of the shop. He assists the family in gaining wealth, but also causes the family's moral disintegration. This is a unique picture of the south of Slovakia, with a mixed Slovak-Hungarian population, depicted in the politically unstable times immediately after WWII. This is an interesting contribution to the sensitive issue of Slovak-Hungarian cohabitation.
The Slovak equivalent of a western, the film is set in the 1920s, when the Czechoslovak borders were still insecure. Two men of equal virtue, a horse smuggler and a customs officer, who also represent the conflict between the community and the authorities, face each other on the Slovak-Polish border. The film is a simplified, but very visually appealing, story about the absurdity of history and borders.
This is a film set in WWII, when Czechoslovakia split into the pro-Nazi Slovak Republic, and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. This is a story of fate, persecution, and violence, in which a Slovak and his Czech colleague try to escape to Hungary by crossing the Danube. The images of riding cargo trains and crossing the borders back and forth can be perceived as a metaphor for movement in a circle. Besides being a powerful story, the film offers viewers a better understanding of the phenomenon known as 'Mittel-Europa'.
Read more on A Path across the Danube - 22 February, 2007...
This is a tragicomic story in a rural setting, based on a collection of short stories by the Slovak female writer, Milka Zimková, about the lives of a single mother and her daughter, who seem to copy each other. Set in the late 1950s and late 1970s. The film offers an interesting picture of the way of life, regional traditions and mentality of people from eastern Slovakia.
Read more on She Kept Crying for the Moon - 23 February, 2007...