Glass Paintings

The village innkeeper Lejba Sibal and his pregnant wife Sura are threatened by Lejba's former farmhand Georg, who wants to kill them both at Easter. After Lejba has sought help from the authorities in vain, he decides to fight back himself.

Vienna at the turn of the century: The industrialist Friedrich Hofreiter is a vain, self-important man who is used to taking what he wants and who enjoys exercising power. His tender wife Genia increasingly recognizes his deceitfulness. The Russian pianist Alexei Korsakov, a subtle artist, commits suicide because of her. Hofreiter, on the other hand, travels to the Dolomites with his friend and family doctor Dr. Mauer, who is in love with the young Erna. Hofreiter makes her his lover in front of Mauer's eyes. In turn, he provokes Genia's lover into a duel and shoots him. In the end, there is only emptiness. Faithful adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler's stage play.

A nurse and her surgeon-lover are part of a resistance movement in 1940s Czechoslovakia. When they are discovered, her lover flees and she must find a place to hide. A patient whose life she saved, a man from a remote mountain village where time stopped 150 years ago, agrees to hide her as his wife.

Maria, an inn keeper, is always a bride but never a wife. She meets newcomer Pierre, who disturbs the peace of the small village and teaches the locals how to enjoy life. E. Havetta's debut was inspired by naïve art, French impressionism, silent slap-stick and Western Slovakian folk traditions.

In 1900, Stepha, the vivacious 30 year old daughter of a wealthy couple, agrees to marry her cousin Paul, who has accumulated large debts as an Austrian army officer. Paul refuses to work or to consummate the marriage, and then his health steadily declines.

Juraj, a Slovak artist living in Prague, takes stock in his life, realizing that his days pass without purpose. He lives a carefree life. But now he has to choose between two women, between the city and the country, and between creative work and craftsmanship. He has a passion for art but he also has to make a living. Through his relationships with close people, he grows aware of his position and this knowledge helps him to live a more fulfilling and better life.

Three families, three festive stories. Uninvited guests, new love, and a quest for the perfect winter. 'A Christmas Story' weaves humor and holiday spirit into a heartwarming journey through the ups and downs of the season.

An alpine village shortly before the First World War. Widowed forester Rufman has little sympathy for his sons Friedel and Elias. Both find it difficult to cope with themselves. One day, a stranger appears whose curiosity confuses the suspicious villagers. Only Elias feels attracted to him. When a murder takes place in the village, suspicion soon falls on the forester's boys.

What to do with life on an island threatened with rescue? Johanka is the owner of a café called Laputa, which—like the flying island of the same name from Gulliver's Travels—is her island. Will it be enough to make her feel complete and happy? Johanka explores what to do in the boundless space of adult life, at the beginning of which she finds herself. Her family is not very helpful, and the café guests each come with their own needs and selfishness—their characters are meant to be a reflection of their generation.

Set in a bleak, filth-ridden provincial hospital, a disillusioned doctor begins to find the philosophical ramblings of a mental patient more stimulating than the company of "sane" society. As their relationship deepens amidst the grimy and decaying wards, the doctor's own mental health is called into question by his suspicious colleagues.

This year’s gallery of artistically inspiring portraits of uncompromising eccentrics (among them The Hanging of Stuart Cornfeld, Robert Richardson: The White Devil and A Pint of Ink) features another unobtrusive stand-out in the shape of Igor Luther, a key figure of Slovak and European cinematography. Ivan Ostrochovský’s perspective is rare, dynamic and also meditative, while Luther himself co-authored the project during the last few months of his life. Works such as Juraj Jakubisko’s Birds, Orphans and Fools, Volker Schlöndorff’s The Tin Drum and Andrzej Wajda’s Danton, in the persuasive words of their creators, wouldn't have the same timeless energy today if it weren't for Luther's visionary endeavours.

Elo Havetta's student film.

The documentary tribute to the solitary director Elo Havetta (1938-1975), the author of only two feature films (Celebration in the Botanical Garden and Wild Lilies), which belong to the peaks of Slovak cinema. In their time, they brought playfulness and spontaneity, which the authors of the documentary follow up with a happening in which they search for his legacy on the way to the director's grave.