“A burned-out group of Brno intellectuals decides to go to Kolochava in Ukraine to perform ‘A Ballad for a Bandit’ there.” With these words, the author's collective presents their film, in which they use primarily documentary imagery to compose a lyrical grotesque about an epochal trip, which might be their goal. But it doesn't have to be. The main tool of expression here is the film’s edit, which places various shots, statements, and meanings next to each other, often in a sort of productive conflict. Just like in a poem, the “poetic function” of art and its ability to serve as the primary tool for expressing beauty is manifested in full force before our very eyes.
policista
Rowdy Jonas, 11, longs to spend the summer exploring the Slovakian countryside with his cool Grandpa Bernard, but his exasperated mother plans for him to go to the seaside instead. Jonas sneaks away from home and takes the train by himself to his grandpa’s. Upon arrival he finds his grandpa grumpy and moping. Luckily, his brave and tomboyish neighbor Alex befriends Jonas and together they create a scheme to raise money for a raft of their own. Their illegal racket creates an uproar in the village, lands Grandpa in jail for a crime he didn’t commit and causes Alex and Jonas’s friendship to fray. Will Jonas find a way to repair the mess?
Pavel
Vilo
Slovakia, on the eve of the outbreak of World War II. The family of the young Jewish Martin Friedmann gathers to celebrate his bar mitzvah and make a solemn promise that they will all meet again a year later around the same table; but the storms of war and anti-Semitic fanaticism will lead each of them down very different paths.
