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FESTIVALS / AWARDS Slovakia

Slovakian film abounds at the 14th edition of Cinematik

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- The Slovakian film festival will honour Portugal’s João Pedro Rodrigues with its Respect Award when it unspools from 10-15 September

Slovakian film abounds at the 14th edition of Cinematik
The Good Death by Tomáš Krupa

One of the younger Slovakian international film festivals, Cinematik, will soon unspool for the 14th time in the spa town of Piešťany. The line-up traditionally includes the Meeting Point Europe section, which rounds up intriguing European productions from the 2018-2019 season, including Yorgos Lanthimos’ much-celebrated royal affair The Favourite [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, François Ozon’s latest drama By the Grace of God [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: François Ozon
film profile
]
, the disarmingly absurd comedy Diamantino [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Gabriel Abrantes, Daniel Sc…
film profile
]
by Gabriel Abrantes and Daniel Schmidt, Sacha Polak’s Dirty God [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sacha Polak
film profile
]
, Bertrant Bonello’s Cannes-premiered Zombi Child [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bertrand Bonello
film profile
]
and Julian Schnabel’s van Gogh drama starring Willem Dafoe, At Eternity’s Gate [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Julian Schnabel
film profile
]
.

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Cinematik regularly hosts a competition for Slovakian documentaries in the Cinematik.doc section. The titles that will vie for the award this year are Tomáš Krupa’s award-winning intimate doc examining the taboo topic of death and assisted suicide, The Good Death [+see also:
trailer
interview: Tomáš Krupa
film profile
]
; Peter KerekesBATAstories [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, which revolves around the story of Tomáš Baťa but also that of modern global capitalism; Swedes from the Slum, in which Katarína Farkašová tracks the lives of three Roma children adopted in Sweden as they return to their homeland to visit their biological parents; and Erik PrausThe Calling [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, which respectfully observes “the life of monks but also shows the ostentatious beauty of the monastery”, among other movies. Domestic filmmaker Barbora Berezňáková will introduce her first feature-length project, Never Happened [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, as a world premiere in this same section. She employs found-footage aesthetics as she tells the story of three friends from the 1990s whose lives and actions would come to be closely intertwined with the highest echelons of politics, a tale that resonates in this current, challenging political climate.

The In the House section will screen a selection of domestic features and short oeuvres by emerging talents, including the bittersweet love story by father-and-son team Víťo and Richard Staviarsky, Loli Paradicka [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Marka Staviarska
film profile
]
; Teodor Kuhn’s family drama set against a political-thriller backdrop, By a Sharp Knife [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
; and the shorts The Gleam of Delicate Irony, Poetika Anima, Neptune, Antiquary and Kid.

The most prolific Slovakian filmmaker at present, Peter Bebjak, will have his post-apocalyptic web-series The Spot projected on a big screen in the Free Zone section along with Lucia Kašová’s documentary Non-Believers, which follows a group of conspiracy-theory believers on a visit to the office of one of Slovakia’s main newspapers.

Furthermore, Cinematik is organising a retrospective of celebrated Portuguese filmmaker João Pedro Rodrigues, which will include his works Phantom [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, Two Drifters [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, To Die Like a Man [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, The Ornithologist [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: João Pedro Rodrigues
film profile
]
and The Last Time I Saw Macao [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
. Furthermore, a slew of recent Portuguese films will accompany the retrospective, among them Miguel GomesTabu [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Miguel Gomes
interview: Miguel Gomes
film profile
]
, Pedro Cabeleira’s Damned Summer [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pedro Cabeleira
film profile
]
and Marco MartinsSaint George [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Marco Martins
film profile
]
.

The festival’s line-up also offers a wide variety of award-winning and thought-provoking European festival titles, such as Corneliu Porumboiu’s The Whistlers [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Corneliu Porumboiu
film profile
]
, Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Céline Sciamma
film profile
]
, Fatih Akin’s The Golden Glove [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Fatih Akin
interview: Jonas Dassler
film profile
]
, Hlynur Pálmason’s A White, White Day [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Hlynur Pálmason
film profile
]
, and Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne’s drama Young Ahmed [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
film profile
]
.

The 14th edition of the International Film Festival Cinematik Piešťany runs from 10-15 September. The full line-up is available here.

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