The 19th Cinematik Interational Film Festival is about to start. Let the art and films open your eyes

The nineteenth edition of the Cinematik IFF will open with the Slovak premiere of a new film by Iveta Grófová entitled The Hungarian Dressmaker. This narrative drama from the times of the Aryanisation and persecution of minorities during the wartime Slovak state is a film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Petr Krištúfek. This film will also be eye-opening, as the finest art can be. The visual idea of the 19th Cinematik Piešt’any International Film Festival is “eye-opening”. These are the moments when we consciously or unconsciously broaden our own horizons through the perception of cinematic works. We come to new ideas, new perspectives, thanks to which we can also perceive the world around us more diversely and we can look at it from different angles. From our own experience, we feel that the films at Cinematik are very much succeeding in doing this and we hope that it can have at least a small benefit for the whole society. And yet all you have to do is come and… ” watch.” as actor Robo Roth adds at the end of the festival soundtrack, as another eye opens on his forehead.

Cinematik’s visuals continue and develop the concept of introducing the craft of filmmaking. Last year’s edition introduced the craft of Storyboarding. This year, the craft of Film Masking is the starring role. The unforgettable actor Rob Roth is complemented by a handmade film mask created for Cinematik by the young Slovak make-up artist Ria Pontikis. The work on the mask took several weeks on and off, from designing, testing and modelling the silicone prosthetics to applying the mask to the actor during the filming day. The festival’s soundtrack and advertising spot were directed by Slovak film director Peter Czikrai, who brought his own sense of humour and attention to detail to the serious ideas of the inner narrative. During the opening night of Cinematik, visitors will witness the gala Slovak premiere of the film The hungarian Dressmaker by Iveta Grófová. The author of Little Harbour (2017) and Made in Ash (2012) based her feature film on the novel of the same name by Petr Krištúfek, a writer, director and screenwriter who died in a tragic car accident in 2018.

Starring Alexandra Borbély (winner of the 2017 Best European Actress Award from the European Film Academy), Milan Ondrík, Nico Klimek, Éva Bandor, Táňa Pauhofová and others, the film is set during World War II. It tells the story of a Hungarian widow, Marika, who, after losing her job in an Aryanised Bratislava tailor shop, hides a Jewish boy – the son of her former employer. It depicts the dramatic war era in the environment of the then Slovak-Hungarian border region in an atmosphere of escalating hostility towards minorities. The narrative film was almost seven years in the making, also due to forced breaks in filming during the pandemic, and had its world premiere in the main competition of this year’s Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. The Hungarian Dressmaker tells the story of the fickle boundaries between humanity and the protection of one’s own life, where one excludes the other. In her own words, Iveta Grófová is particularly attracted to Petr Krištúfek’s novel by the stories of the main characters and the atmosphere, but she also draws attention to its broader social implications.

Although the story is set in a relatively distant past, the director reminds us that it is in some ways quite contemporary. “The parallels with today’s Slovakia, even in the context of the shooting of the Slovak Prime Minister, are striking. If you start using hateful language, it starts a vortex that can take everyone down. Even those who started the the whole thing…” says the winner of the Crystal Bear at the Berlinale (Generation Kplus category) and two Slovak national film awards, the Sun in the Net. However, she says the film does not approach the characters in the story, which include not only ordinary inhabitants of the then Slovak state but also guardsmen, in her words, in black and white. She tried to build the plot on the fact that even its more controversial heroes faced their own dilemmas and often tried to do only what they thought was best. The nineteenth edition of the Cinematik International Film Festival will bring, in addition to the premiere of the opening film, nearly a hundred other unique cinephile experiences. Great foreign and domestic fiction and documentary films await the audience in two competition sections and several non-competition ones. In addition, events, lectures, a rich industry and music programme will be part of the audience’s favourite six-day festival.