At the 82nd Venice International Film Festival (August 27 – September 6), Tereza Nvotová’s film Father will compete in the Orizzonti section. As part of the Venice Production Bridge market, the project Soft Hours, currently in development, will also be presented.
The feature film Father by Slovak director Tereza Nvotová has been selected for the program of the world’s oldest film festival. For the director, this marks her debut participation in the festival on Lido. Her previous films premiered at prestigious international events – Locarno IFF (Nightsiren), Rotterdam IFF (Filthy), and Ji.hlava IDFF (The Lust for Power).
Nvotová’s latest work, Father, produced as a Slovak-Czech-Polish co-production, will have its world premiere in the competitive Orizzonti section. Slovak cinema has maintained a steady presence in this section – in each of the past five years, a Slovak title has been included. Last year it was the documentary comedy Wishing on a Star (dir. Peter Kerekes), the year before that the Hungarian-Slovak co-production Explanation for Everything (dir. Gábor Reisz), in 2022 the drama Victim (dir. Michal Blaško), and in 2021 the festival showcased Kerekes’s 107 Mothers.
The psychological drama Father tells the story of a loving father, inspired by real events. A tragic mistake shatters his life, shaking his marriage and isolating him in guilt. As the threat of prison looms, he begins to question whether he deserves to go on living. But when he and his wife come to see that the tragedy was not a personal failure, but something rooted deep in the architecture of the human mind, a fragile path toward forgiveness begins to emerge. Even with this understanding, the question remains: can love survive what no heart was built to endure?
As part of the Breakthrough Talent Showcase! Sam Spiegel International Film Lab, which takes place within the Venice Production Bridge (August 28 – September 3, 2025), the project Soft Hours by director Anna Gyimesi will be presented. Representing the Slovak side of the project, which is currently in development, is producer Barbara Janišová Feglová. Their joint presentation in Venice before an expert jury will mark the culmination of a months-long development process guided by experienced script advisors.
Soft Hours is a psychological drama about Ilona, a woman in her late fifties whose son went missing during a trip to Slovakia. Crushed by grief, she hires Leon, a young sex worker, to impersonate him. A strange bond forms between them, but it cannot fulfill their longing. Ilona is eventually forced to face her guilt and accept the loss. Only then can she begin to grieve.
More information at: https://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/2025
