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Prikler, who is serving on the jury of the 22nd Art Film Fest taking place in the Slovak spa town through 27 June 2014, spoke with FNE about his current slate of films. First up is the Hungarian/Slovak coproduction Mirage directed by Szabolcs Hajdu which is expected to be finished by the beginning of July. MPhilms was a minority coproducer on the film, providing 10% of the 1.9 m EUR budget, with a grant of 145,000 coming from the Slovak Audiovisual Fund.
The film about an African footballer on the run who winds up working on a Hungarian slave labour farm, was filmed in wide screen to give it a Western genre flavour. Slovak participation involved a complicated three-day shoot and the casting of Slovak actors including Attila Mokos and My Dog Killer star Adam Mihal. It will be released in Hungary in the fall, with a Slovak release tentatively planned for November.
Next comes the Slovak/Czech coproduction Children, the first fiction feature film from documentary director Jaro Vojtek. The film will be finished in July for a 25 September 2014 release, distributed by the Association of Slovak Film Clubs, which distributed Vojtek’s two documentaries. Prikler said the release of the films will be “a small experiment,” with a pre-premiere plan to show the film in seven cities across Slovakia in seven days. Prikler called the pre-premiere screenings a gesture to Slovakia, which normally focuses all its attention on the first Bratislava screenings.
Children, written by Marek Lescak, is comprised of four short dramas set in four different seasons about the relationships between parents and their offspring, who will always be their children no matter what their age. The budget is 440,000 EUR with the Audiovisual Fund providing 277,000 EUR, and Slovakia providing 75% of the budget. The Czech producer is Duracfilm.
After a busy 2014 (MPhilms released the omnibus film Slovakia 2.0 in April), Prikler is slowing down with just one film now in development. He’ll continue building his relationship with Hungary as well as Romania with Robert Lakatos’ Without Guardian Angels. Lakatos and Prikler plan to co-write the script of a film set in a Hungrian village located in Romania. The film, with a budget in the range of 700,000 – 800,000 EUR is envisioned as a Slovak/Hungarian/Romanian coproduction. Prikler has been in discussions with Andras Muhi of Inforg Studio and Tudor Giurgiu of Libra Film. The film will be shot in Romania with a Hungarian crew as well as some Slovak crew, with post-production taking place in Slovakia.
