Záber z filmu Vtáčkovia, siroty a blázni

Slovak Classics at the Midnight Sun Forever Online Film Festival
5. June 2020

The film festival in Sodankylä will be the first Finnish festival to move its edition online due to the pandemic. The online edition of the event, dubbed Midnight Sun Forever (June 10 – 14, 2020) will present more than 50 films including four Slovak gems from the 1960s. This will be the very first screening of Slovak classic films at an international online film event.

The selection curated by Olaf Möller will present A Pact with the Devil (1967) by Jozef Zachar, The Sweet Time of Kalimagdora (1968) by Leopold Lahol, Juraj Jakubisko’s Birds, Orphans and Fools (1969) and Elo Havetta’s Celebration in the Botanical Garden (1969). Respected film historian and curator Olaf Möller with a soft spot for Slovak part of the Czechoslovak New Wave, will present the films and give an online master class about them.

“What further binds this selection is the films’ playful fascination with the fantastic, ranging from: the pop-Gothic erotica of A Pact with the Devil; via the consumerism-critical fairy-tale of The Sweet Time of Kalimagdora and the subversive bucolica of Celebration in the Botanical Garden; to the post-Apocalyptic fable of Celebration in the Botanical Garden.” explained Olaf Möller. “Fairies and Devils fight here over the soul of Man, while in the heart of Europe, one small nation fought for its right to be different, embark on its own path through history. All this: The hopes and their crushing, are here, in these four films. And more, much more, above all: Marvels, miracles and mirth. For this is a cinema of joy, however bleak things sometimes might get.”

Slovak classic cinema has already been presented at the festival in 2015, when the Slovak retrospective section entitled Master Class on Slovak Cinema introduced five films: The Organ (1964) by Štefan Uher, Before Tonight Is Over (1965) by Peter Solan, The Dragon Returns (1967) Eduard Grečner, Wild Lilies (1972) by Elo Havetta and Pictures of the Old World (1972) by Dušan Hanák.

Web:
https://msfilmfestival.fi/en/

Related articles:
2015: Slovak archives in the Midnight Sun