Lehotsky was one of three Slovak directors presenting at the Pitch & Feedback forum jointly organized by the Slovak Film Institute.

The title character Erik is an avid swimmer who stops communicating after he is in involved in a car crash, instead telling everything to his imaginary friend. The script is co-written by Lehotsky and Marek Lescak. This will be Lehotsky’s third film. He made his debut with another acclaimed film, the documentary Blind Loves in 2008.

Lehotsky and his Slovak coproducer Ivan Ostrochovsky of Punkchart (www.punkchart) told FNE that the project received a 19,000 EUR development grant from the Slovak Audiovisual Fund. The film, which will be shot in a tight dramatic form, is budgeted at 870,000 EUR. Production is planned for summer 2015 with a release in 2016.

The film will be shot in Czech and Slovak as a Slovak/Czech coproduction. The Czech coproducer is Jiri Konecny of endorfilm, whose credits include several Slovak films with a documentary element.