Apathetic Marek is training his dog while a television report follows the activities of the local neo-Nazis. The young man seems to feel that the future is just as grey as his monotonous existence living near the Slovak-Czech border. Despite the pressure weighing on him from the incessant conflicts he must face, a meeting with his mother brings unexpected turbulence. This raw movie concentrates the burden of his sad life into a short timeframe, demonstrating the futility of resistance in an environment so inimical to his chances for escape. Although the aimless protagonist is unexpectedly goaded into action, it may simply be another step toward doom. The director maintains a cool distance from her subject, introducing more a sense of awareness in her viewers than a straightforward drama about the transformation of a lost hero. She allows the various environments and characters to interact naturally (although they may not understand one another) in order to get at their essence; in like manner she probes the stultifying milieu of a village that has stagnated into a numbing routine. KVIFF
DAFilms.com is powered by Doc Alliance, a creative partnership of 7 key European documentary film festivals. Our aim is to advance the documentary genre, support its diversity and promote quality creative documentary films.