Hungarian Dressmaker

Hungarian Dressmaker 2024

1

It’s the 1940s. The Slovak state witnesses the rise of nationalism and it’s not an auspicious time for minorities. The turbulent social mood also impacts the widow Marika, who loses her job in an Aryanised dressmaker’s shop. Given the increasing anti-Hungarian sentiment she shuts herself away, particularly since she is harbouring a little Jewish boy. Despite this she still finds herself singled out by two men: a German Nazi officer and a captain of Slovakia’s Hlinka Guard. This drama by Slovak director Iveta Grófová is an adaptation of the novella of the same name by Peter Krištúfek, which conjures up the dramatic atmosphere of wartime Slovakia. The story of a fragmented era, which forces the protagonists to confront complex dilemmas, is told not only through words, but also by way of a powerful visual language. Sandra Hezinová (kviff.com)

2024

Zelary

Zelary 2003

7.20

A nurse and her surgeon-lover are part of a resistance movement in 1940s Czechoslovakia. When they are discovered, her lover flees and she must find a place to hide. A patient whose life she saved, a man from a remote mountain village where time stopped 150 years ago, agrees to hide her as his wife.

2003

Out of the City

Out of the City 2000

5.70

A computer programmer and his son are going out of the city for vacation.

2000

Divided We Fall

Divided We Fall 2000

7.26

In 1943, a childless couple, the Čížeks, decide to hide a Jewish refugee, David Wiener, the son of Čížek's former employer, in the secret pantry of their apartment. Čížek is aware of the danger into which he has brought his household and his neighbours, but he takes helping his fellow man in need for granted. But at the same time, as a largely unheroic hero, he is dying of fear. His personal situation is greatly complicated by the approaching end of the war, when he faces danger from both the Germans and his "honest" fellow Czechs...

2000

Toman

Toman 2018

6.20

This fascinating historical drama looks at the life of "the Czech Schindler," Zdenek Toman, a controversial figure who was an unsavory politician and dubious entrepreneur, but also the savior of hundreds of Eastern European Jews.

2018

Up and Down

Up and Down 2004

6.75

Milan and Goran are two criminals who smuggle illegal immigrants. One night after they complete a smuggle, they discover that one of the immigrants has left a baby behind. Milan and Goran decide to sell the baby to Lubos and Eman, who are responsible for running an illegal baby adoption center. Lubos and Eman make attempts to sell the baby to Miluska and Frantisek, a barren couple.

2004

Beauty in Trouble

Beauty in Trouble 2006

6.60

Marcela can't bear Jarda any longer, so she threatens divorce and takes the kids to her mom's, whose husband is a creep. While Marcela is there, Jarda is jailed, because he is part of a gang steeling cars and they get caught in the act. Benes, the urbane man whose car got stolen by Jarda and his gang, befriends Marcela. Soon she feels drawn to Benes and all of a sudden she must make up her mind: Jarda is still sexually attractive to her, but Benes offers security, and her own body and mind may not pull at the same strand.

2006

El Paso

El Paso 2009

5.00

The Horváth family is a Romani family with seven children, and the story begins with the tragic death of the father. His wife, Vera, is suddenly in a fight with the authorities, determined to keep her large family together at all costs, but she is hopelessly ill-prepared for the task. They are evicted from their home and her case-Vera versus the city-finds its way to a young, ambitious lawyer. She doesn't know the world of the Romani, nor is she particularly interested in it. Initially she takes the case as a springboard for her career. Despite her prejudices, incomprehension and sometimes Vera herself, she doesn't abandon the case. Luckily she is not the only one who sides with the family. There is a social worker whose attempts to help the Horváths are also motivated by his entirely private interest in the attractive lawyer.

2009

The Oddsockeaters

The Oddsockeaters 2016

5.70

Oddsockeaters are small invisible creatures, responsible for socks that go missing when we only have one left from a pair. But unlike them, Seed’s gang wants to have a pair. In the end, they began their fight between two sets of values.

2016

Cruel Joys

Cruel Joys 2002

6.10

This simple story is the feature debut for well-known Slovak theater and television director Juraj Nvota. Set in a Slovak village at the turn of the last century, the story teems with passion, and repressed and hidden emotion. It delves into the search for identity, investigating both love and hatred, while dramatizing the tragic relationship between an adolescent girl (Tatiana Pauhofová) and her ambitious father (Ondrej Vetchý). Set against the striking though simple backdrop of a picturesque, even idyllic, landscape - one ostensibly cut off from any important historical, political, or social context whatsoever - the arrival of an unwanted individual evokes the onset of a cruel drama.

2002

Forgotten Transports to Latvia

Forgotten Transports to Latvia 2007

6.00

In January of 1942, two first transports with hundreds of Czech Jews leave Theresienstadt for the east. After a journey lasting several days, the trains reach the Latvian capital of Riga.

2007

Teddy Bear

Teddy Bear 2007

5.90

Jirka, Roman, and Ivan have been friends since school. Today they are about 35 and, although they went into different fields, their friendship has lasted. Each of the three friends hides a secret, and their lives change radically when the secrets come out. How will the three friends stand up to the tests they are forced to face? Will their friendship survive?

2007

The Banger

The Banger 2020

3.50

The fictional town of Šlukdorf. Here lives a car mechanic who calls himself Bourák. He loves rock and roll, dance, his own gelled hair and, despite being in his fifties, simply “refuses to grow up”. He forgets he has a wife. The only things he loves are Elvis, Cadillacs and anything connected with 1950s America. His daughter Kamila is fed up with life in the squalid town and with her irresponsible father. She is fed up with working in a casino with no windows, open round the clock; that her mother has caught the eye of the local gangster, who is clearly a dimwit; with her father behaving as if he has gone completely barmy. Kamila realizes she has to do something about it. She has to confront her parents with reality, as cruel as that may seem. A black comedy about everything that can happen because of a summer storm, a set of golf clubs, rock and roll, and one incredibly angry daughter.

2020

Murderous Tales

Murderous Tales 2016

6.00

MURDEROUS TALES is a special effect animated feature film combining live actors with 3D/2D animation, puppets and back projection. It contains three stories: Antonio Cacto, Lighthouse and The Big Man, plus three ultra-short films called Charge the Dragon. Each episode uses different production technology and is in a different genre, but both their form and their content are related. All the episodes are about double standards and the topics of heroism and death. Something very small meets something very big (a tiny knight meets a huge dragon, an old Mexican goblin meets a man, a tiny Professor meets real-life cows, two mobsters meet the Big Man). All these meetings result in the heroic death of the small principal characters. Each script sees heroism and death differently.

2016

Forgotten Transports to Belarus

Forgotten Transports to Belarus 2008

6.00

Belarus between 1941 and 1944 was an apocalyptic place with nights lit by flames from hundreds of torched villages and with soil soaked in the blood of countless victims.

2008