2023 – the year of the 60th anniversary of the foundation of the Slovak Film Institute, began with our dear comrade Kos carrying on with his travels around the world. Within the project The Central European Cinema of the Absurd, 1958–1990, a satirical Kafkaesque comedy The Barnabáš Kos Case (Prípad Barnabáš Kos, dir. Peter Solan, 1964) has yet again made its audience wonder at the level of absurdity present in everyday socialist Czechoslovakia. The two North American screenings, one at the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley, California (USA) in January and the other at La Cinémathèque québécoise in Montreal (Canada) in February, have proven that absurdity knows no boundaries—neither cultural, nor geographical.
The Trieste Film Festival (Italy) held a retrospective named Beyond the Boundaries: The Fringes of Czech and Slovak Cinema, which included a couple of treasures from our archive: Photographing the House Dwellers (Fotografovanie obyvateľov domu, dir. Dušan Trančík, 1968), Old Shatterhand Came to See Us (Prišiel k nám Old Shatterhand, dir. Dušan Hanák, 1966), The Earth in Song (Zem spieva, dir. Karel Plicka, 1933) and Pictures of the Old World (Obrazy starého sveta, dir. Dušan Hanák, 1972). Speaking of Dušan Hanák’s Pictures of the Old World, the vivid portraits of people living in inner freedom despite the surrounding civilizational chaos, the film continued to be shown in Japanese cinemas as part of its limited theatrical re-run from January until March.
The International Film Festival Rotterdam (Netherlands) hosted an international premiere of three digitally restored animated short films by Jaroslava Havettová: The Song (Pieseň, dir. Jaroslava Havettová, Ivan Popovič, 1969), Until the Pitcher is Broken At Last (Kým sa ucho neodbije, dir. Jaroslava Havettová, 1971) and Contacts (Kontakty, dir. Jaroslava Havettová, 1980), in the official festival selection within the Cinema Regained program dedicated to collective remembrance of world cinematic heritage. BFI Southbank London (United Kingdom) organized a retrospective entitled Outsiders and Exiles: The Films of Jerzy Skolimowski, which included Dialogue 20 40 60 (Dialóg 20 40 60, dir. Jerzy Skolimowski, Peter Solan, Zbyněk Brynych, 1968), a portmanteau film in which couples aged 20, 40, and 60 discuss the questions of love and marriage using the same dialogue.
The Slovak Film Institute celebrated its 60th anniversary at the Ponrepo Cinema in Prague (Czech Republic) with a project organized in cooperation with the National Film Archive Prague screening four programs of Slovak classic films from the collections of the Slovak Film Institute: Vladimír Kordoš – Film and Video Work; Over Mountains, Over Valleys (Po horách po dolách, dir. Karel Plicka, 1929) accompanied by live music from David Kollar and Tomáš Mutina; and the curated programs A Passion for Duty (short animated films) and Archive in Short (short documentary films).
The Karlovy Vary Film Festival (Czech Republic), as part of the Out of the Past section dedicated to classic cinema, world premiered The Truth is All There Is (Pravda je to najdôležitejšie, dir. Maroš Brázda, 2023). This feature documentary, a portrait of the film director and poet Eduard Grečner, was co-produced by the Slovak Film Institute. The film was screened in a double feature program alongside Eduard Grečner’s timeless masterpiece, Dragon’s Return (Drak sa vracia, 1967). Dragon has also returned to France, to Lumière Lyon, where it was screened within the Treasures and Curiosities section at the Institut Lumière.
2023 marked another significant milestone: the 100th anniversary of the birth of Viktor Kubal, the founding father of Slovak animation. The Film Fest Ghent (Belgium) paid homage to maestro Kubal within its special curated program titled Videodroom, screening his digitally restored films. Two short films Idol (1989) and Cinema (Kino, 1977) were presented with live improvised musical accompaniment by The Ghent Advanced Master Ensemble (GAME) and a feature The Bloody Lady (Krvavá pani, 1980), a silent film based on the legend of Elizabeth Báthory, the infamous Bloody Countess who allegedly maintained her youth by bathing in young virgins’ blood, was screened with a beautiful, newly composed live soundtrack by American electroacoustic composer Claire Rousay.
The Slovak Film Institute’s Blu-ray release, The Sun in a Net – 60th Anniversary Edition (Slnko v sieti, dir. Štefan Uher, 1962), won the Best Single Blu-ray/DVD Release of the Year 2023 at the Il Cinema ritrovato DVD Awards 2023, organized by the prestigious classic film festival Il Cinema ritrovato in Bologna (Italy). Second Run DVD (United Kingdom) released Dialogue 20 40 60 as a part of Jerzy Skolimowski’s Blu-ray box set (along with Skolimowski’s Walkover, Barrier, and a selection of short films).
