Ordeal
Zuzana Piussi / Slovakia, Czech Republic / 2021 / World Premiere / 75 min.
synopsis
In the past ten years, the Slovak citizens’ trust in justice has fallen sharply. Thanks to the access to Threema messages of Marian Kočner, a businessman under investigation in relation to the murder of the journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová, a vast corruption network within state administration and the justice system has been revealed. Disintegrating the merciless machinery including corrupt judges, rich and influential businessmen, mafia, politicians, and innocent citizens alike, is all but an easy task. Reflecting on the long-term crisis of the Slovak justice system, Zuzana Piussi’s investigative documentary asks whether the justice system with its many failures can ever be corrected.“The film emphasises the fact that the failure of the justice system is one of the reasons why people vote for anti-system parties, expecting remedy from them. In vain. If the justice system was working properly, the state could never be controlled by oligarchy and mafia to such an extent.” (Zuzana Piussi)
biography
This film is limited to 363 views.Zuzana Piussi (1971) is a film director and documentarist who studied film directing at the Film and TV Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, Slovakia, and who cooperated with the Stoka theatre in the 1990s. In her works, she has been focusing on political affairs and societal phenomena resonating in Czech and Slovak society. She has co-authored film such as Common Sense (2017), University and Freedom (2019) or The Siege (2019). Her most recent film Ordeal (2021) addressing the justice system crisis in Slovakia is a follow-up to her feature-length documentary The State Capture (2019) exposing the deficiencies of democracy in the former Socialist block.
more about film
director: | Zuzana Piussi |
cast: | Katarína Javorčíková, Janka Javorková, Pavel Macko, Elena Berthotyová, Igor Matovič, Pavol Korytár |
producer: | Vít Janeček |
photography: | Miro Remo |
editing: | Šimon Špidla |
music: | Lucia Piussi |
sound: | Adam Matej |
sound design: | Jan Richtr |
executive producer: | Vít Janeček |
Film at festival
premiere type: | World Premiere |
festival edition: | 2021 |
section: | Czech Joy |
awards: | Zvláštní uznání |
language: | Slovak, Czech |
subtitles: | English |
colour: | Colour |
Info
director: | Zuzana Piussi |
original title: | Očista |
country: | Slovakia, Czech Republic |
year: | 2021 |
running time: | 75 min. |