One of the younger Slovakian international film festivals, Cinematik, will soon unspool for the 14th time in the spa town of Piešťany. The line-up traditionally includes the Meeting Point Europe section, which rounds up intriguing European productions from the 2018-2019 season, including Yorgos Lanthimos’ much-celebrated royal affair The Favourite [+lire aussi :
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fiche film], François Ozon’s latest drama By the Grace of God [+lire aussi :
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Q&A : François Ozon
fiche film], the disarmingly absurd comedy Diamantino [+lire aussi :
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interview : Gabriel Abrantes, Daniel S…
fiche film] by Gabriel Abrantes and Daniel Schmidt, Sacha Polak’s Dirty God [+lire aussi :
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interview : Sacha Polak
fiche film], Bertrant Bonello’s Cannes-premiered Zombi Child [+lire aussi :
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interview : Bertrand Bonello
fiche film] and Julian Schnabel’s van Gogh drama starring Willem Dafoe, At Eternity’s Gate [+lire aussi :
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interview : Julian Schnabel
fiche film].

Cinematik regularly hosts a competition for Slovakian documentaries in the Cinematik.doc section. The titles that will vie for the award this year are Tomáš Krupa’s award-winning intimate doc examining the taboo topic of death and assisted suicide, The Good Death [+lire aussi :
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interview : Tomáš Krupa
fiche film]; Peter Kerekes’ BATAstories [+lire aussi :
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fiche film], which revolves around the story of Tomáš Baťa but also that of modern global capitalism; Swedes from the Slum, in which Katarína Farkašová tracks the lives of three Roma children adopted in Sweden as they return to their homeland to visit their biological parents; and Erik Praus’ The Calling [+lire aussi :
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fiche film], which respectfully observes “the life of monks but also shows the ostentatious beauty of the monastery”, among other movies. Domestic filmmaker Barbora Berezňáková will introduce her first feature-length project, Never Happened [+lire aussi :
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The In the House section will screen a selection of domestic features and short oeuvres by emerging talents, including the bittersweet love story by father-and-son team Víťo and Richard Staviarsky, Loli Paradicka [+lire aussi :
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interview : Marka Staviarska
fiche film]; Teodor Kuhn’s family drama set against a political-thriller backdrop, By a Sharp Knife [+lire aussi :
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fiche film]; and the shorts The Gleam of Delicate Irony, Poetika Anima, Neptune, Antiquary and Kid.

The most prolific Slovakian filmmaker at present, Peter Bebjak, will have his post-apocalyptic web-series The Spot projected on a big screen in the Free Zone section along with Lucia Kašová’s documentary Non-Believers, which follows a group of conspiracy-theory believers on a visit to the office of one of Slovakia’s main newspapers.

Furthermore, Cinematik is organising a retrospective of celebrated Portuguese filmmaker João Pedro Rodrigues, which will include his works Phantom [+lire aussi :
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fiche film], The Ornithologist [+lire aussi :
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interview : João Pedro Rodrigues
fiche film] and The Last Time I Saw Macao [+lire aussi :
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fiche film]. Furthermore, a slew of recent Portuguese films will accompany the retrospective, among them Miguel Gomes’ Tabu [+lire aussi :
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interview : Miguel Gomes
interview : Miguel Gomes
fiche film], Pedro Cabeleira’s Damned Summer [+lire aussi :
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interview : Pedro Cabeleira
fiche film] and Marco Martins’ Saint George [+lire aussi :
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Q&A : Marco Martins
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The festival’s line-up also offers a wide variety of award-winning and thought-provoking European festival titles, such as Corneliu Porumboiu’s The Whistlers [+lire aussi :
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interview : Corneliu Porumboiu
fiche film], Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire [+lire aussi :
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interview : Céline Sciamma
fiche film], Fatih Akin’s The Golden Glove [+lire aussi :
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interview : Fatih Akin
interview : Jonas Dassler
fiche film], Hlynur Pálmason’s A White, White Day [+lire aussi :
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interview : Hlynur Pálmason
fiche film], and Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne’s drama Young Ahmed [+lire aussi :
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interview : Jean-Pierre et Luc Dardenne
fiche film].

The 14^th edition of the International Film Festival Cinematik Piešťany runs from 10-15 September. The full line-up is available here.