Karol Spišák

Twenty-five films from twenty-five European countries by twenty-five European directors.

In Slovakia, they often and gladly honored those soldiers who refused to serve the fascist regime and stood against it. Lieutenant Kukorelli also rejected the tempting career of a pilot, instead helping the resistance fighters and later participating in the Slovak National Uprising.

A story of a family that after WWII moved to the south of Slovakia and acquired a prosperous butcher business left behind by a Hungarian emigrant. From the previous owner, the family also inherited a self-assured, greedy assistant who does not like to observe any firm moral principles. He assists the family in gaining wealth but in the long run, he causes the family's moral dissolution. In his most successful feature film, director Zoro Záhon combined a complex drama with excellent acting performances, especially that of Hungarian actor Gábor Koncz in the lead role.

Two female clerks using up their savings to enjoy a few days of carefree life, two plumbers looking for an erotic adventure, a building contractor determined to drink away all wages of his workers and a former major who became an alcoholic due to political persecution — these people meet in a ski resort bar somewhere in the High Tatras. During one night they gradually reveal their unfulfilled dreams, illusions and disappointments of ”average" people of those times.

Set in Bratislava, university friends Turo and Andrey are paralyzed by existential dread under the shadow of the Cold War and the threat of nuclear war. Rejecting long-term goals, Turo is an astronomy student that adopts a hedonistic lifestyle, while Andrey channels his anxiety into a sculpture for Hiroshima. This shared trauma ultimately tests their friendship and undermines their relationships.

Johanka had a fling with a well digger she had not met before and who, she was most likely certain, would never be around again. Just before his departure, they have sex and she eventually becomes single mother of a baby girl. Now, 18 years later, her daughter Paulina commutes by bus to work in the nearby city, which gives the village gossips the occasional opportunity to remind her of her unknown father. A resultant conflict with her mother makes Paulina take up residence in the city. Johanka, prodded by her also-single friend Jozefka who maintains that a woman without a man is nothing, begins to woo the new teacher Jarek only to discover later that he is married. Paulina, in the meantime, loses her virginity to the soldier Jirka who promptly makes himself scarce. Johanka fails to consider that she actually has a better life than some of her married neighbors, begins to see.

In 1980s CSSR, depressed Martin tries to overcome the feeling of being locked up with jazz music.

To have the opportunity to play in a movie, many a girl dreams. To look behind the scenes of filmmaking, to become well-known, popular, maybe even famous... that's one side of the coin. The other side demands discipline, self-denial, perseverance, which is not so attractive to people anymore. This is what Viki, an eighth-grader, has to go through on her way to film fame.