Ján Svikruha

Great Times

The drama of the last days of the second world war through the eyes of children in rural areas.

Concert for the survivors

A picture of generational confrontations between children and parents. A young and ambitious violin virtuoso, Peter, lives in long-lasting conflicts with his father. Only after his death Peter realizes how much he had been hurting his father. Still, not even the tragedy can make a change in his shallow life in stereotype.

Big Night and Big Day

Slovakian villagers towards the end of WW II are despairing as German troops fall back to their village.

Maple and Juliana

A girl is transformed into a maple tree by her impulsive and angry mother. Three poor wandering musicians come by the tree and create instruments from it. Walking around the country instead of happiness they bring death everywhere with their cursed instruments. However they cannot get rid of them, unless they bury the wooden instruments at the place of the tree. The three are anything but harmonious, each taking in their disputes various stances.

Field Lilies

Two repatriated soldiers search for stability and love when they return home after the First World War.

If I Had a Gun

Vlado, an intelligent boy living in a small village, has fantasies that take him away from his humdrum life. But as the Nazi occupation begins to encroach on the townsfolk his fantasies and reality begin to merge.

The Genius

A Slovak comedy from director Štefan Uher and screenwriter Alfonz Bednár.

Birds, Orphans and Fools

In the aftermath of war, two men and a woman begin acting more like children than adults, leading to tragedy.

Three Daughters

A classical ballad motif about an aging father and his three daughters is quite unusually here set against the backdrop of Czechoslovakia of the 1950s. After having been expropriated, the former landowner Majda seeks refuge with his three daughters whom he had sent to a convent a long time ago. But only the youngest one is able to forgive him and she is willing to take care of him despite the threat of expulsion from the order.

Three Daughters

A classical ballad motif about an aging father and his three daughters is quite unusually here set against the backdrop of Czechoslovakia of the 1950s. After having been expropriated, the former landowner Majda seeks refuge with his three daughters whom he had sent to a convent a long time ago. But only the youngest one is able to forgive him and she is willing to take care of him despite the threat of expulsion from the order.

Miraculous Virgin

A film adaptation of the novelette of the same title written by Dominik Tatarka depicts the life of a young generation of artists that was formed in Slovakia during the war. Anabella, a young and beautiful girl meets a group of artists. She awakens their erotic desires but also pure feelings of love; she becomes the object of their secret fantasies as well as their artistic inspiration. And it seems that the boundaries between reality and fantasy suddenly cease to exist.

The Bells Toll for the Barefooted

A dramatic story from the end of WW II and a remarkable contemplation of the value of true friendship, meaning and purpose oflife or the possibility to be humane even in inhuma ne conditions. In a frosty mountain setting a cruel struggle for life takes place. After a fight, two partisans return to their brigade carrying along a young German soldier as a captive. But suddenly, amidst the hopelessness of barren mountains. all protagonists find themselves in a liminal existential situation.

The Organ

A young Polish deserter and gifted organist finds shelter from the fascists in a Slovak Franciscan monastery. He find himself in conflict with the local organist and choir leader, a man limited in his world views and spiritual values.

The Sun in a Net

Oldrich "Fajolo" Fajták (Marián Bielik), a student who directs quasi-existentialist verbal abuse at his girlfriend Bela Blazejová (Jana Beláková), takes off to a formally volunteer summer work camp at a farm where he meets her grandfather.

Brothers

A bricklayer, Jozef Haviar, decides to live with his family on the small farm of his father through the difficult years of the economic crisis. But on his return to his father's house he gets into a conflict with his brother. The life-and-death conflict between the two brothers documents the difficult situation of Slovak country life in the 1930s, the time of economic depression.