Producer Marian Urban told FNE he is working with long-time collaborator, director Juraj Nvota on the film.

“It’s very atypical for Slovakia,” Urban told FNE. “Few Slovak artists made an international name for themselves.”

Urban said the documentary will be “a story of the last century,” told “from the point of view of a man who had to survive almost everything.” After trying to leave the country in 1951, he spent three years in prison, and after the crack-down of 1968, he was again out of favour with the government.

Alef has been working on the film for two years.

The budget is 105,000 EUR. Urban told FNE he is hoping to bring Slovak TV on as a coproducer for archival material. The Slovak Audiovisual Fund gave the film 55,000 EUR.

Urban said he’s also in development with a film adapted from a notable Slovak novel. The film is still in the script stage, with a new writer coming on board after the original screenwriter died suddenly. The central characters are a woman approaching 50 who is schizophrenic and her husband who decides he can cure her by moving to the country to start a new way of life.

Once the script is complete, Alef will look for coproduction partners.

Contact information:

Alef Film&Media Group
Mliekarenská 11
821 09 Bratislava
Slovakia
Phone: 421 2 20 90 26 48
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.