The 57th edition of Viennale International Film Festival (October 24 – November 6, 2019) will introduce two Slovak classics Captain Dabač by Paľo Bielik and The Bells Toll for the Barefooted by Stanislav Barabáš within Retrospective program. The two-month retrospective will start during the Viennale and will continue until December 4, 2019.
O partigiano! Pan-European Partisan Film is a joint retrospective of the Viennale and the Austrian Film Museum that will present 42 partisan films produced between 1942 and 1985 including Captain Dabač by Paľo Bielik and The Bells Toll for the Barefooted by Stanislav Barabáš. The selection of Slovak films is led by Rastislav Steranka, director of the National Cinematographic Center of the Slovak Film Institute (SFI), who will personally introduce both films in Vienna.
The Bells Toll for the Barefooted by Stanislav Barabáš is a restrained winter ballad of two lonely, scared partisans who accidentally capture a young German soldier and encounter a desperate woman, robbed of all life’s meaning by the brutality of the war. Bielik‘s Captain Dabač is a drama of a young officer of the Slovak Army who gradually realizes he is fighting on the wrong side of history. Punished for disobedience, he escapes into the forests where he joins the anti-fascist resistance. Even in his new role, Dabač remains a romantic individualist, questioning the beliefs and behavior of both himself and his new comrades.
Part of the extensive retrospective program is a lecture series focusing on partisan films from Eastern European countries. Guests from Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Germany and Slovakia will present their lectures including Rastislav Steranka with a lecture entitled Resistance in Slovak fiction film 1945-1989. The lecture will take place on December 4, 2019 at the Institute for Slavic Studies of the University of Vienna.
Screenings:
Captain Dabač | October 29 | 11:30 | Austrian Film Museum
The Bells Toll for the Barefooted | November 3 | 18:30 | Austrian Film Museum
The Bells Toll for the Barefooted | November 28 | 18:30 | Austrian Film Museum
Web: https://www.viennale.at/en
https://www.filmmuseum.at/en
