Marian Urban

The Dormant Account

The young couple's search for the secret of their ancestors. Its roots are in the time when the worst crimes of the last century took place, connected with corruption, boundless greed, ruthlessness, with borderline manifestations of inhumanity, but also with an unlimited desire for power. Dramatic reflection of memory and time in a story from the present in the confrontation of the Czechoslovak context during the Slovak State (1939/1945).

I, Olga Hepnarova

Olga is a complex young woman desperate to break free from her unfeeling family and social conventions. With her Louise Brooks-like tomboyish looks she drags herself, chain-smoking, from one job to another until she appears to find her niche as a truck driver. Although she has female lovers she does not form a bond with any of them; instead she clashes, time and again, venting herself in wordless emotional outbursts and other behavioural extremes.

Muzika

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

Cruel Joys

This simple story is the feature debut for well-known Slovak theater and television director Juraj Nvota. Set in a Slovak village at the turn of the last century, the story teems with passion, and repressed and hidden emotion. It delves into the search for identity, investigating both love and hatred, while dramatizing the tragic relationship between an adolescent girl (Tatiana Pauhofová) and her ambitious father (Ondrej Vetchý). Set against the striking though simple backdrop of a picturesque, even idyllic, landscape - one ostensibly cut off from any important historical, political, or social context whatsoever - the arrival of an unwanted individual evokes the onset of a cruel drama.

Rivers of Babylon

Dark satire about bare-knuckled capitalism in the immediate post-Cold War era. Set just as the Communist government is collapsing, the film focuses on the brutish Racz, the handyman in a Bratislava hotel. Knowing that his job is insured for life, Racz turns off the building's heat and demands food, money, and sex to have it restored. The film is narrated by a pimp named Urban who explains that people in the former Czechoslovakia were so used to being abused that they simply put up with Racz's corruption. By the end of the film, Racz's fortunes have changed considerably. Instead of being a lowly worker, he is now a ruthless and wealthy businessman, unafraid to kill or kidnap those who get in his way.

Paper Heads

Dušan Hanák's final film: a bitter documentary about the history of Communism in Czechoslovakia.