Sunday, 12 April 2026 at 5 pm
Screening of Short Film Classics
Město darované / A Gifted Town
(Czechoslovakia, 1965, 11 min)
Director: Vladimir Kressl
CS • 1965 • 11’ • documentary
In 1944, at Himmler's request, a documentary film was made - “The Führer Gives a City to the Jews” - to serve as proof of the alleged quality of life for the Jewish people imprisoned in the Theresienstadt ghetto.
Scattered segments and footage from this film, which has never been fully reconstructed, had a profound impact on Czechoslovakia in the 1960s and remain a subject of interest for researchers attempting to uncover the circumstances of its creation. In 1965, director Vladimir Kressl responded to this wretched distortion of the tragedy unfolding in Theresienstadt by juxtaposing images from the original film with sketches of life in the ghetto made by former residents of Theresienstadt – many of whom were later murdered in Auschwitz – and overlaps them with reports detailing the transports of prisoners from Theresienstadt to various extermination camps.
Kastélyok lakói /
Inhabitants of Castles in Hungary in 1966
(Hungary, 1966, 28’)
Director: Judit Elek
HU • 1966 • 28' • documentary
How does the past live within the skeleton of buildings that have withstood a turbulent history? And what do the youngest inhabitants of the present know about the worlds still hidden within the walls of castles?
In several castles of imperial Hungary, which socialist Hungary repurposed into functional spaces – such as a nursing home, an artists' residency and an orphanage – we see some of their former owners and the completely new residents who now live in them.
Nek se čuje i naš glas / Let Our Voices Be Heard
(Yugoslavia, 1970, 16’)
Director: Krsto Papić
YU • 1970 • 16' • documentary
In some parts of the Croatian Zagorje and Podravina regions, a large number of villagers owned their own radio stations which broadcast their programmes daily.
The central authorities labelled the broadcasts of these radio stations as “harmful”, and regularly took measures to prevent their voices from “polluting” the strictly controlled airwaves of rural Yugoslavia. Nevertheless, those behind the independent stations did not relent.
The film won a special prize from the festival directors at the Oberhausen Short Film Festival in 1971 for “a film overlooked by the jury”.
Dnevnici iz Hriba / The Journals of Hrib
(Slavomir Popovici, Romania, 1974, 15’)
Director: Slavomir Popovici
RO • 1974 • 15' • documentary
For decades, Vasile Hrib, a self-taught peasant from the village of Manasia, kept a detailed diary about everyday life, the weather, agriculture, but also the major historical events that passed through his village.
The film follows entries from Hrib's diary, particularly those in which he reveals himself to be an eloquent and engaging storyteller – a kind of “translator” between traditional rural culture, illustrated with scenes from the frescoes of the monastery in Arboreu, and the contemporary, political, and partially cosmopolitan world, represented by archival footage from various parts of the world.