28th Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival
Never Happened
director: Barbora Berezňáková
original title: Skutok sa stal
country: Slovakia, Czech Republic
year: 2019
running time: 82 min.
synopsis
“The deed did not occur,” proclaimed Vladimir Mečiar in 1996 on the murder of businessman Róbert Remiáš, which likely had a political motive and with which the Prime Minister himself was likely involved. His infamous dictum is an attempt to negate a documentary that combines an investigative approach with original filmmaking. The director builds her film on interviews with key players in the Remiáš case but does not limit herself to an austere presentation of facts. Alternating different film formats, from black and white film to VHS, she evokes a period of crime and highlights the central theme of confrontation with the past.
“I wanted to make a poetic political film. Engagé art should not give up on the style.” B. Berezňáková
biography
Barbora Berezňáková (1987) graduated from the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava and the New York Film Academy. Her filmography includes short films, music videos and video art gallery installations. For television, she made a short documentary about the witnesses of 1968 Ask Your Parents: 68 (2018), and an episode of the show GEN about musician Peter Breiner (2014). She also explored memories of the recent past in her gallery project entitled Remembering ‘90 (2015).more about film
| director: | Barbora Berezňáková |
| producer: | David Čorba, Hana Blaha Šilarová |
| script: | Barbora Berezňáková |
| photography: | Barbora Berezňáková, Ivo Mika |
| editing: | Matěj Šámal |
| music: | Ľubomír Burgr |
| sound: | Bohumil Martinák, Lukáš Kasprzyk, Dušan Kozák |
