The Line picked as Slovakia’s Oscars hopeful
- Peter Bebjak’s crime-thriller about smuggling, which proved a domestic box-office hit, will represent Slovakia in the race for the Oscars
The Slovak Film and Television Academy has plumped for a genre film as its bid for the Oscar for Best Foreign-language Film. Peter Bebjak’s fourth feature, The Line [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andrey Yermak
interview: Peter Bebjak
film profile], became this year’s summer hit in its home country, setting a new record on its opening weekend and becoming one of the main contributors to the recent one-million-admissions milestone achieved by local features (read the news). In addition, it earned Bebjak the Best Director Award at the most recent edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (read the news).
After his previous film, The Cleaner [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Martin Žiaran
interview: Peter Bebjak
film profile], an urban drama with crime-thriller elements, Bebjak, a well-versed maker of television crime series in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, decided to embrace genre cinema with The Line, while not overlooking his arthouse sensibilities. The gritty movie thus also contains elements of magical realism, among other ingredients. The story follows patriarch and smuggling ringleader Adam Krajňák, who has to cross a personal line after his last smuggling mission goes haywire. As the first Slovak-Ukrainian co-production, the film will begin its Ukrainian theatrical distribution on 22 October, and it will be released in the Czech Republic on 26 October. Furthermore, the movie is currently being shown as part of the Czech and Slovak Film Festival of Australia.
Also among the candidates eligible to represent Slovakia in Hollywood were Martin Kollár’s contemplative docu-essay 5 October [+see also:
trailer
film profile]; the intimate portrayal of a singer-songwriter and a peek behind the scenes of showbusiness, This Is Not Me [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Miro Remo
film profile], another local box-office hit; the political thriller Kidnapping [+see also:
trailer
film profile]; the Crystal Bear-winning drama Little Harbour [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Iveta Grófová
film profile]; the ambitious and absurd comedy Out [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: György Kristóf
film profile]; and Juraj Lehotský’s latest offering, Nina [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Juraj Lehotský
film profile], a drama about a child intended for adult audiences, which was recently screened at Toronto.
The Line was produced by Slovakia's Wandal Production, and co-produced by Ukraine's Garnet International Media Group, Radio and Television Slovakia and Homemedia production (Slovakia). The Slovak Audiovisual Fund, Ukrainian State Film Agency, Creative Europe MEDIA and Bratislava Self-Governing Region supported the project. Film Republic in London has the international rights.