Film Archive

Nina

East of the West - Competition 2017 / Nina / Slovak Republic, Czech Republic 2017

Nina is twelve years old and her world has just been shattered to smithereens: Her parents’ marriage has broken down and they are getting a divorce. After his internationally successful feature debut Miracle Juraj Lehotský now brings us an intimate drama in which the viewer looks upon the world and the selfish, visionless behaviour of adults through the eyes of a 12-year-old girl. A girl who is resilient and belligerent, but also vulnerable and just as fragile as the miniature world she creates for herself in the garden shed.

Synopsis

Nina is twelve years old and her world has just been shattered to smithereens: Her parents’ marriage has broken down and they are getting a divorce. The two people who, until now, had been her strongest support are no longer able to communicate with one another, and Nina can only watch in misery as they argue to their last breath. The only certainty in her life at this juncture is her competitive swimming, but when her participation in the races is jeopardised she decides to make a radical move… Like his feature debut Miracle, Juraj Lehotský’s second film also draws on his experience as a documentarist to depict life and personal relationships without a trace of embellishment. While Miracle highlighted various social aspects, on this occasion Lehotský, together with his close colleague, respected scriptwriter Marek Leščák, turns out an intimate drama in which the viewer looks upon the world and the selfish, visionless behaviour of adults through the eyes of a 12-year-old girl. A girl who is resilient and belligerent, but also vulnerable and just as fragile as the miniature world she creates for herself in the garden shed.

Lenka Tyrpáková

About the film

82 min / Color, DCP
World premiere
Director Juraj Lehotský / Screenplay Marek Leščák, Juraj Lehotský / Dir. of Photography Norbert Hudec / Music Aleš Březina / Editor Radoslav Dubravský / Art Director Juraj Fábry / Producer Ivan Ostrochovský, Albert Malinovský, Katarína Tomková / Production Punkchart films / Coproduction endorfilm, Česká televize, Lehotsky Film, Rozhlas a televízia Slovenska, sentimentalfilm / Cast Bibiana Nováková, Robert Roth, Petra Fornayová, Josef Kleindienst / Contact kaleidoscope

About the director

Juraj Lehotský (b. 1975, Bratislava, Czechoslovakia) graduated in photography from an applied arts secondary school (1994) and in documentary film direction from the Academy of Performing Arts (2000), both in Bratislava. He has made a number of short documentaries. His first feature-length film, the documentary Blind Loves (2008), premiered in Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes in 2008 and was subsequently screened and awarded at a number of other international film festivals. That same year the film screened in KVIFF’s Documentary Film Competition. In 2013 he debuted in feature film with Miracle, which opened the East of the West Competition at Karlovy Vary, where it earned a Special Jury Mention and went on to tour a number of other festivals (Cottbus, Vilnius). Nina is Lehotský’s second feature film.