Aquabelles from Prandorf

For 14-year-old Adam, the world of his poor Romany village has only two joys: boxing and Julka, a friend his same age. But after the violent death of his father, the boy experiences life’s harsher side: his mother remarries and his stepfather demands obedience without seeking to deserve Adam’s respect. Gradually everything the boy was attached to starts to fall apart around him, and if his dead father hadn’t visited him he wouldn’t even know which path to take. The inexperience of youth, loneliness, and impulsiveness prevent him from using reason and cool consideration to face the obstacles in his way, and he even sometimes provokes those who stand by him. And thus he finds himself in a situation for which there is only one solution.

War takes its cruel toll, which everyone must pay. It hits a small Slovak village especially hard, where the struggle for a bare life becomes a test of human character. For two impoverished friends, Jakub and Maja, struggling through poverty is more than difficult. Jakub delivers sour milk from somewhere on his cart to the entire village and lives in a dilapidated house with his sister Tereza, whose caregiver and guide through life is the experienced woman Mara, who provides herself with money from seduced soldiers. Maja, on the other hand, is a foundling and homeless man who does whatever he can to survive the next day. The only consolation for the two inseparable friends are the circulating tales of a kind of promised land, where there is no poverty or hunger, and where they could both go. Only this vision, this idea alone keeps the two of them and the rest of the village on their feet, and gives them hope for a better tomorrow.

The concept for the film was developed based on sociological research conducted as part of the Youth Subcultures conference in collaboration with the Institute of Sociology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. The film’s core value lies in its ability to provide an inside look at selected subcultures, achieving an exceptional level of engagement with their members. The filmmakers managed to break through the participants' initial reluctance to openly discuss their experiences. The documentary directly addresses key aspects of these subcultures, including drugs, faith, and personal beliefs. It focuses on six specific groups: the techno scene, graffiti artists, antifascists, religiously oriented youth, skinheads, and young people inspired by Eastern spirituality. The film includes footage from illegal rave parties, graffiti sessions, and other underground activities. Overall, the documentary serves as an insightful map of Bratislava’s contemporary alternative scene.

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.