Lukáš Csicsely

Days Off is a short film, an homage to the puppet and city. By combining puppet animation and live action it builds a certain strange kind of reality, a reality that is based in the real world. It is an audiovisual testimony using the language of surrealism, satire, parody, irony and gallows humor, a dark mirror reflecting today’s world.

A twelve-year-old Michal was born with a cleft lip. He feels inadequate because of his deformed face. His only friend Ondra convinces him to join a street gang to finally break free from a position of an outsider. Two friends have one afternoon to show they have what it takes to pass the admission to the gang. Michal desperately wants to prove he is good enough, but the tempting adventure suddenly turns into an initiation ritual into adulthood.

During a random check the commander of a Czech Customs Unit discovers a group of immigrants in a van’s cargo area. The chaotic incident is taken advantage of by an underage boy who flees into the surrounding forests. The order is to keep the group in makeshift space and to find the boy. But the boy’s father refuses to co-operate with the search and the unit’s members start being aggressive towards the detained men. The commander tries to deal with the ensuing situation according to the rules but slowly he becomes undecided whether to follow orders or his own conscience. A night which shakes his faith in the system he represents.

It is a surprising mosaic of diverse environments and a colorful animal world... A huge lake. A world unto itself. The huge Lake Balaton was formed long ago in a world of volcanoes and ice ages. The largest inland lake in Central Europe lies in the heart of Hungary, on the plains stretching east of the Alps. Fresh water flows into it via the Zala River and a number of smaller seasonal streams. These waterways carry precious cargo to the lake. Countless fish swim here to their traditional spawning grounds. The dense local vegetation is popular with herons and cormorants; they have only one concern: to collect enough material to build their nests. So many young birds grow up here that the marshes are teeming with life. Just like the entire lake and its immediate surroundings, which are truly full of natural beauty.