Other Worlds had its theatrical release in Slovakia on February 15, 2006. Following his last year's film Celebration of a Lonely Palm about Ello Havetta, Marko Škop turned his attention to the very fringe of the globalized world. The film is set in the East Slovak region of Šariš and vividly links individual insights into the lives of the local Šariš, Ruthenian, Roma and Jewish people with broader issues regarding the socioeconomic developments in present-day Europe.
Marko Škop and Ján Meliš first introduced the film in 2003 as a project in development at the Jihlava East European Forum. Two years later, Other Worlds was among the nine East European films selected for DOCU TALENTS FROM THE EAST, the Karlovy Vary presentation of documentary films in development, which introduced the film to international festival programmers, distributors, members of the press and the public. In this year's edition, Other Worlds marked a successful participation in the documentary competition but Marko Škop was again present at the DOCU TALENTS FROM THE EAST panel, this time as the producer of Juraj Lehotský's documentary project Searching.
Other Worlds was made as a co-production between the Slovak production company ARTILERIA and the Czech film studio MIRAGE that was also largely responsible for the transfer of the digital format into 35 mm print. The co-production negotiations were attended by Czech documentary filmmaker Filip Remunda who is the author of the documentary film Czech Dream. The film was made with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic and Czech TV. Commissioning editor Jan Gogola Jr. acted as the film's main consultant. The production of the film was supported also by the Tibor Vichta Award, the Literary Fund and the East European Forum, organized by the Institute of Documentary Film. Other Worlds is distributed in Slovakia by Continental Film.
OTHER WORLDS
©ARTILERIA and STUDIO MIRAGE 2006
written and directed by: Marko Škop
director of photography: Ján Meliš
edited by: František Krähenbiel
sound engineer: Igor Vrabec
dramaturgy: Jan Gogola ml.
cast: Ján Lazorík, Fedor Vico, Katarína Hrehorčáková,
Ignác Červeňák, Stano Čorej a Tóno Triščík
running time: 78 min
ANOTATION:
Šariš, in the East of Slovakia is a very specific border region between Eastern and Western Europe. Borderline between rational individualism of the West and expressive emotionality of the East. The territory in the foothills of Eastern Carpathians has always been strongly traditional but also a crazy mix, „little Babylon“ of a place. Europe has started its transformation again and life is changing rapidly. Our documentary film is trying to track down the so-called globalizing process and the effect it has on the individual lives and stories of the people. The film depicts six different characters and the changes in their close communities. They are Šarišans, Ruthenians, Jews, Gypsies, but also young people with no particular or special identity, with no attempt to specify their uniqueness. The filmmakers are trying to show the end of the traditional diversity, and are searching for the beauty of the original, the authentic, the interesting and the individual. People from the region of Šariš have been often called „crazy Easterners“. The OTHER WORLDS are following six of them to the end of the world, to the end of the globalized world. They´re a product „made in Šariš“.
RESULTS OF THE DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
Documentary Jury
Fabrizio Grosoli – chairman of the jury, Italy
Jana Boková, Czech Republic, Argentina
Tine Fischer, Denmark
Marek Hovorka, Czech Republic
Guntis Trekteris, Latvia
BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM (5 000 USD)
(shorter than 30 minutes)
- Views of a Retired Night Porter (Views of a Retired Night Porter), Austria 2006
Dir. Andreas Horvath
BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM (5 000 USD)
(longer than 30 minutes) Ex-aequo
- Life in Loops (A Megacities RMX) / Life in Loops (A Megacities RMX), Austria 2006
Dir. Timo Novotny - In the Pit (En el hoyo), Mexico 2005
Dir. Juan Carlos Rulfo
SPECIAL MENTION
- Other Worlds (Iné svety), Slovak Republic, Czech Republic 2006
Dir. Marko Škop