Director Martin Gonda’s feature-length debut was produced as a parity production between Slovakia (SK prod. Silverart) and Czechia, in co-production with Poland and Belgium. The film will premiere in the International Feature Film Competition, which will also include the Slovak co-production Ungrateful Beings (SK prod. Punkchart films), presented earlier this year at the San Sebastián IFF.

Flood is set in the former Czechoslovakia during the period of normalization. In 1981, the socialist regime began construction of the largest surface water reservoir in Central Europe, intended to ensure the water supply for the eastern part of the country. The construction of the Starina reservoir was completed six years later, resulting in the displacement and flooding of seven predominantly Ruthenian villages: Starina, Zvala, Smolník, Veľká Poľana, Ruské, Dara, and Ostrožnica. Against the backdrop of these real events, the film develops a dramatic story of a Ruthenian family, focusing on the conflict between a farmer and widower Alexander and his daughter Mara, whose lives are directly affected by this industrial transformation of the Slovak landscape.

Martin Gonda, a graduate of the Film and Television Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, draws on his personal knowledge of eastern Slovakia, which he had already utilized in his short student film Pura Vida. During filming, he worked with actors from the Alexander Duchnovič Theatre alongside non-professional child actors – an approach he once again employs in his feature debut. The social drama Pura Vida, produced by Tomáš Gič, had its world premiere in 2019 in the Cinéfondation section at the Cannes Film Festival.

 

 

Flood