Available from 26 March – 23 April
Directed by Ivan Ostrochovský • 2020 • Slovakia

Drawing on a dark period in his nation’s modern history, Slovak filmmaker Ivan Ostrochovský’s Servants is an icy study of repression and resistance that refuses easy answers. Set in a Bratislava seminary in 1980, the film follows novitiates Juraj (Samuel Skyva) and Michal (Samuel Polakovič) as they navigate the conflicting demands of their faith and a paranoid communist regime pressuring the church to fall in line. With their spiritual leaders succumbing to blackmail from the menacing secret police chief Ivan (Romanian New Wave stalwart Vlad Ivanov), the young men must choose between collaboration and conviction. Shot in noirish monochrome with nods to horror and thriller classics, this is a political parable that unfolds like a bad dream.

SERVANTS • SLUŽOBNICI
Directed by Ivan Ostrochovský
Written by Rebecca Lenkiewicz, Marek Leščák, Ivan Ostrochovský
Cinematography by Juraj Chlpík
Music by Cristian Lolea and Miroslav Tóth
Starring: Samuel Polakovič, Samuel Skyva, Vlad Ivanov

In Slovak with English subtitles