film directed by Jana Ševčíková

At his parsonage over the Tatra Mountains, Marian Kuffa readily takes care of more than 200 people in need. This unostentatious movie is not just a portrait of a remarkably selfless man but also a more general contemplation of the complicated lives of alcoholics, junkies, and all other social outcasts, as well as an elegant reflection on mercy and the forms that faith can take.

PIEMULE is a film about an ethnic group of Czechs which settled over a hundred and fifty years ago in the hills not far from Timisoara. The ancestors of today's inhabitants, craftsmen and farmers came to the Romanian highlands around the year 1822 with their families, work and livelihood. Director Jana Sevikova went to Romania for the first time in the early 1980's and under very difficult conditions, she succeeded over a period of several years in capturing the way of life of one remote village fused with the changing seasons represented by religious ceremonies or social and work rituals (Christmas, carnivals, Easter, weddings, harvests, the ploughing of the land). She presents individual people their customs, behavior and opinions. Employing a complex structure of composition, the film depicts the social aspects of this small enclave foreign to Romania, its history as well as the moral depth of the people . Isolated from a foreign world this community has kept it's language , culture and also a feeling for national identity. The film does not have a factual, explicit commentary in the ordinary sense of the word. It contains the testimonies of individual people and a few essential historical facts: a song depicting the biblical story of the original sin threads it's way through the whole film. The song represents the religious character of these people and how they bear their lot. They live in relative material poverty , they are left to their own resources and the whim of Ceaucescu's regime. The film reminds us of life values which have long disappeared and only exceptionally are they found today. Jana Hadkova, film critic. In 1993, the filmmaker returned to the same place in Romania, ten years after she had completed filming. To her surprise, nothing had changed, life in Rovensko had remained unmarked, not even by Romania's revolution and other changes in the country ruled by a former Communist dictatorship. Time had already stopped during the last century.

捷克记录片女导演塞奇科娃数十年来坚持用影象记录东欧地区各个流亡族群的生活,本片短短45分钟,却是在多瑙河地区拍摄五年的成果.17世纪,俄国正教会牧首尼康强行推进唯希腊化宗教改革,大批坚持俄罗斯旧东正教信仰的民众被迫流亡国外，直到今日他们的后代也还保留着早已被遗忘的传统...。。 黑白粗砺的画面包裹着古老凝重的村庄和纯净澄澈的天空,村人们拥有自己的天使名,模仿施洗者约翰终身佩戴十字架和皮带,他们的日子过得简单而坚定,但对现代生活又有朦胧的向往....片中记录了许多已近失传的宗教仪式和观念,而摄影比大多数文艺片更为出色,昏黄草地上沉默的马和耕牛,光影荡漾的河水掩映着虬蝻的古林,圣洁的钟声与呢喃的吟唱配合诗意的画面带来深沉悠远的意境,令人沉醉其中.