Directed by Ivo Trajkov • 2022 • Slovakia

Ivo Trajkov’s exquisitely eerie blend of period drama and folk horror explores the dark depths of patriarchal cruelty and nationalist fervour. Told in a series of flashbacks, the film recounts the last days of the rural Slovak village of Piargy. The powerful local landowner Ján Roháč (Attila Mokos) covets Juliša (Judit Bárdos), his beautiful young daughter-in-law. Their eventual union corrupts the very soul of the town, which exists in the shadow of an ancient prophecy about the coming of the Antichrist. Based on František Švantner’s novel, The Ballad of Piargy captures a lost world of superstition and brutality, in which the threat of the supernatural commingles with the violence of the patriarchy and impending fascism.

THE BALLAD OF PIARGY • PIARGY
Directed by Ivo Trajkov
Written by Jana Skořepová and Ivo Trajkov
From the novel by František Švantner
Cinematography by Peter Bencsík
Music by Kiril Džajkovski
Starring: Lucia Siposová, Judit Bárdos, Jana Kvantiková

In Slovak with English subtitles