31/03/2015 - Slovakian cinema is readying a fresh batch of upcoming projects

Director Matej Mináč (© Šárka Ševčíková, ČRo)

A session to present current works in progress from within Slovakian cinema took place during the 22^nd edition of the Febiofest Festival in Bratislava (20-26 March). “We are happy that the filmmaking public reacted to the opportunity to present their movies – in fact, they did this so positively that we managed to assemble a representative collection of projects from different genres, authors and producers because that is also the idea behind Febiofest, to connect various spheres of the film industry,” commented artistic director Přemysl Martinek on the Work in Progress event. Besides projects like Seven Ravens (see the news), She Is a Harbour (see the news), Koza [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ivan Ostrochovský
film profile] (see the review) and Okhwan (see the news), various new projects at different stages of development or in post-production were unveiled. 

Following in the footsteps of Ivan Ostrochovský, Juraj Lehotský and Jaro Vojtek, another award-winning Slovakian documentarian is now readying a fiction feature. Marko Škop, the director of the documentaries Other Worlds and Osadné, is busy completing Eva Nová [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Marko Škop
film profile] for a predicted release in September. The film follows a recovering alcoholic who was once a famous actress and is striving to mend the broken relationship with her son, whom she abandoned. Eva Nova is produced by Artileria and co-produced by Sirius Film and Radio and Television Slovakia. Artileria is also producing a film essay entitled Waiting Room: it will be directed by Palo Korec and will follow the fates of seven women who meet in the titular waiting room.

Director Matej Mináč, who was behind two documentaries about Nicholas Winton, The Power of Good: Nicholas Winton and Nicky’s Family, is finishing a docudrama about his mother, the famous Slovakian photographer Zuzana Mináčová, which is expected to premiere in July. Mazl sro is producing the film. Meanwhile, director Lukáš Zednikovič and producer Daniel Dangl, the team responsible for last year’s box-office hit 38, have joined forces again for a comedy based on true events, called The Filmmakers. The project is in development and is provisionally expected to premiere in 2017. The script stems from an incident in 1961 when a couple of tricksters were convicted for pretending to make a film, thus conning the locals. Independent production company Hitchhiker Cinema is developing the documentary Sú družky, which centres on three women whose husbands all share the same passion for the communist regime. The film follows them from the 1930s until the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. Tereza Križková and Tereza Simanová are set to direct, and the project should be finished in 2017. Finally, the production outfit handling Okhwan, Filmpark Production, is also developing an animated series for children entitled Tresky Plesky, which explains natural phenomena and catastrophes in a playful way.