Twelve Slovak films screen at the 8th Czech & Slovak Film Festival, starting on 24 March 2021. You can catch them all in Dendy Cinemas Newton in Sydney until 28 March 2021.
The festival will open with the screening of the latest piece by Martin Šulík The Man with the Hare Ears (2020). The story of a man who on a very peculiar day starts hearing thoughts of the others premiered at the 36th Warsaw Film Festiva in October 2020, and was bestowed the Best Director Award and the Ecumenical Jury Award.
Further, the programme includes two Czech Awards 2020 holders, Charlatan (2020) by Agnieszka Holland, inspired by the life of a herbalist Jan Mikolášek, awarded in five cathegories including Bast Film, and Shadow Country (2020) by Bohdan Sláma, a black-and-white drama about the effects of the political events onto ordinary human`s relationships. The laller received six awards.
Audience in Sydney is also getting a chance to see Scumbag (2020) by Mariana Čengel Solčanská & Rudolf Biermann, based on the bestseller by Arpád Soltész, that during its one-month cinema run in Slovaki last spring became the 2nd highest-admission domestic film of the independed Slovakia.
Romantic comedy Far Too Personal (2020) by Marta Ferencová and psychological thriller Droneman (2020) by Petr Zelenka round up the selection of the feature films. On Saturday 20 March, a special screening of the comedy documentary on the socialist Czechoslovakia import, mking & distribution of the of the VHS tapes and, most importantly, the particular ways of dabbing, Video Kings (2020) by Lukáš Bulava.
As usually, the festival does not ommit short filme either, and screens an all-animation line-up Lunate (2020) by Klára Fedora Homzová, On the Hill (2020) by Lukáš Ďurica & Juraj Mäsiar, Chestnut Boy (2019) by Agáta Bolaňosová, The Pit (2020) by Markéta Smolíková Kubátová, and Trust me (2019) by Zlata Golecová.
The classical Slovak cinema is too part of the CSFF. This year the programmers picked Night Riders (1981) by Martin Hollý. Slovak western set in the Czechoslovak-Polish froniters was digitally restored by the Slovak Film Institute digitization centra and premiered at the Lumiere Film Festival in Lyon, France in October 2020.
Czech & Slovak Film Festival launched in 2014 with an aim to bring and showcase a selection of Czech and Slovak new and classical films in Australia. The event is co-organized by the Slovak comapny ARINA and the Australian IKSIMA Films. Slovak Film Institute, Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, and Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic are partners of the event. The festival is financially supported by Slovak Audiovisual Fund.
More information:
https://www.csfilmfest.sydney/
Related articles:
2020: Slovak films in Australian drive-ins and online
2019: 7th Czech and Slovak Film Festival of Australia
2018: 6th Czech and Slovak Film Festival of Australia
