Opening ceremony will be combined with the award ceremony of the Elena Lacková Prize and screening of the film I Shall Not Hate. We invite you, along with Slovenská sporiteľňa bank, to enjoy a variety of refreshments prepared by the clients of the Mareena Community Centre, after the screening.
ABOUT THE FILM:
Palestinian doctor Izzeldin Abuelaish is a man with an unusually big heart. I Shall Not Hate follows his life’s journey from the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza to the University of Toronto and the Israeli Supreme Court. Abuelaish was the first Palestinian doctor to work in an Israeli maternity ward. But when an Israeli tank bombs his house and kills his three daughters, his mission of forgiveness and reconciliation is put to the ultimate test.
When the prison gates open for Dalibor after two years, he is greeted by a dysfunctional family. His younger brother Kevin, who lives with their abusive, alcoholic father, is missing. After a confrontation with his father, Dalibor helps his mother win custody of Kevin to protect him from a similar ordeal to his own. In an attempt to break out of the vicious cycle, Dalibor finds refuge with a traveling circus. There, he learns to heal his wounds in an unusual way – by becoming a fakir. Through Daliborʼs story, the film explores the power of facing adversity and offers a profound insight into the transformative journey of an individual determined to rewrite his life story. Debuting director Roman Ďuriš adds a metaphorical dimension to this raw yet intimate portrait of a defiant hero. On stage, Dalibor performs the fire spewing and eating, symbolizing his struggle with life in a spectacular shorthand.
The screening will be followed by a discussion with the filmmakers. The discussion will also be interpreted into Slovak Sign Language.
In the remote mountains of central Afghanistan, a Hazara family embarks on a journey for truth and justice after their daughter Zahra mysteriously dies at Kabul University. Told through the eyes of Zahraʼs younger sister, Freshta, the film is a moving contemplation of love, loss, and perseverance in spite of increasing unrest on the eve of the Taliban takeover of the country.
The director will be present for a discussion in English after the screening. The discussion will also be interpreted into Slovak Sign Language.
When her mother freezes to death in the forest on the Polish-Belarusian border, a 16-year-old Kurdish girl Runa has to quickly grow up to take care of her 4 younger brothers and father. The family deals with trauma in a refugee camp and tries to establish a new life in Poland. Runa’s escape from everyday problems is a sketchbook filled with drawings that express what she feels. Gradually, her drawings come to life. The film is a partially animated coming of age story in the times of the global refugee crisis.
The screening will be followed by a discussion in Slovak with journalist Anna Jacková and photographer Michaela Nagyidaiova. The discussion will also be interpreted into Slovak Sign Language.
How are you to live, when you are the son of a Nazi murderer? Martin Pollack, a reporter and writer, decided to retrace his biological father’s footsteps to give back dignity and identity to his victims. Many of them were killed in Slovakia after the Slovak National Uprising. – Gerhard Bast, an elite Nazi, took part in the massacre of partisans and civilians after the suppression of the Slovak National Uprising near the towns of Banská Bystrica and Ružomberok. His biological son is Martin Pollack, an Austrian journalist and writer. In his book, The Dead Man in the Bunker, he followed Bast’s footsteps in Slovakia. Today, he only returns there through Michal Hvorecký, his friend, translator, and writer-colleague. In the film, Michal Hvorecký seeks out several almost forgotten places of memory related to Bast’s crimes and even living survivors of the Slovak National Uprising and witnesses of Bast’s slaughtering. Throughout this journey, he asks himself: “What does the message of the Slovak National Uprising – through which Slovakia rejected fascist ideology based on intolerance and hatred and took a stand on the right side of history – mean to the Slovak collective memory today?”
The screening will be followed by a discussion in Slovak. The discussion will also be interpreted into Slovak Sign Language.
What makes a male, and what makes a female? Where do we draw the line, and does it really matter? – Sharon-Rose Khumalo, a South African beauty queen, plunges into an identity crisis after finding out she is intersex. In her quest to deal with gender dysphoria, she needs the guidance of somebody just like her. The only person who will help is Dimakatso Sebidi, a masculine presenting intersex activist who turns out to be her complete opposite. The two parallel but divergent stories offer an intimate look at the struggle of living in a male-female world, when you are born in-between. For the first time in a creative documentary, Who I Am Not gives a voice to the long ignored and mostly silent two percent of the world’s population: the intersex community.
The producer Andrei Zinca will be present for a discussion in English after the screening. The discussion will also be interpreted into Slovak Sign Language.