Zuzana Balkóová

Matúš is a talented musician, who left his successfully developing career, when his adoptive mother fell ill. After her death, he’s living with his stepbrother Dávid and together they go through life, each in their own way. While Dávid takes what life gives him, Matúš feels frustrated by his failed ambitions. On his way to their fulfillment, he meets his old schoolmate Albert, who opens doors to the „better“ world for him.

Milan, a Slovak working in Germany as a bricklayer, returns home to celebrate Christmas with his wife and three children, one of whom appears to be involved in suspicious activities related to an extremist organization.

Situated in Prague, a 20-year-old Vietnamese named Song, hoped for a better future in Europe. But now in a Vietnamese district in Prague, he is trapped in a marijuana grow house and has life of a modern slave. Police rounds up the place. Song runs away on the rooftop of a condo building in a nearby district where he breaks down. Mr. Rypar (78) lives alone. He is fond of the old times, living in a strong opposition to modern world. Rypar goes up on the roof and meets Song standing on the very edge of the roof crying and the story begins.

A 12 year old swimming star becomes the emotional casualty of her parents acrimonious separation, in this powerful coming of age story about youth rebelliously standing up to the cruelties and immaturities of adulthood.

Time passes slowly at the castle in the Slovak town of Stupava. It is, in effect, the local old people’s home, but it also serves as a refuge for others ‘who have lost everything’. The inhabitants (or ‘exhibits’ – since most castles house art galleries) range from an athletic old man in a speedy wheelchair to a philosopher with a taste for neologisms, a lawyer known as ‘the Classic’, a woman who has seen aliens, and the taciturn Liduška, who collects pigeon feathers. Director Pavol Korec has compiled an attractive mosaic of characters who, despite past tragedies, exhibit an enthusiasm for life whatever the constraints. Intelligent use of image and music lift this above the conventional documentary record. Unusual, affectionate, and subtle, the film provides a light-hearted testament and commitment to life as a value independent of neo-capitalist convention.