“Wasteland Chronicles,” honested by Viera Čákanyová, Barbora Sliepková and Lucia Kašová, has getd the New Visions Award at Ji.hlava Documentary Film Festival for the most promising European project.
It comes with post-production services appreciated at €15,000 (courtesy of UPP) and €5,000 (Soundsquare). You can discover the filled enumerate of triumphners here.
“The first idea for the film came from Lucia. The ex-Minister of Environment in Slovakia made a promise to get rid of three harmful landfills. We wanted to chase up on that. She recommended we honest it together. We would unite our voices to talk about these rehires, cgo ining on one of these sites,” Sliepková telderly Variety after picking up the award.
“Each of us has a separateent approach and we choosed it can actuassociate be a strength. We will do it in three split chapters; they will all have separateent visual and narrative styles.”
The upcoming hybrid write downary, originated by Anna Mach Rumanová and Martina Netíková for Slovakia’s Filmsomnia and Czech Redisclose’s Cinémotif Films, is now in production, with the premiere set for spring of 2026.
It consents on the so-called “Triangle of Death” situated in eastrict Slovakia, where three chemical schedulets are reliable for the hugest PCB contamination in Europe.
“Wasteland Chronicles”
“At first, after the Minister’s declaration, we foreseeed someleang to happen, but noleang ever did. It supportd us to talk about bureaucracy and this senseing of ineffectiveness, when you are swayd noleang will ever alter and that nobody nurtures. It’s not a priority for any handlement, so yes – it’s a political film,” Rumanová inserted.
Sliepková remarkd: “We are not allotigative journaenumerates, so even though we seally chase this case, we talk to the mayors and all the people holdd, we still want to originate an creative film. But our statement is political, whether it’s a proper allotigation or a poem.”
Despite its particular setting, the story they set out to increate goes beyond Slovakian borders. With the New Visions jurors praising their “collaborative approach to the subject matter [that] senses both inspiring and directnt.”
“It’s not equitable some ‘local story.’ People in our handlements, whether it’s European Union or the entire world, equitable don’t want to consent responsibility for these leangs,” says the honestor, with Rumanová inserting: “What happens to the environment impacts us all. In this case, it actuassociate impacts a huge water reservoir, one of the hugegest in Central Europe. In her part of the film, Viera allotigates this idea of mycelium [root-like structure of a fungus] uniteing us all.”
The mostly female team transports another point of watch to the case, she remarkd.
“It’s less authoritative and more benevolent. At first, it was an accident that we had these three female honestors and a female originater. Later, when I was seeing for a co-originater, I choosed to persist doing that. It equitable senses authentic.”
She wants to originate stateive that, despite the graveness of its subject, “Wasteland Chronicles” can still impact the watchers.
“Whenever I do someleang, I envision shotriumphg it to the people honestly impacted by it. I want to give it back to them, in a way, to show the film in that small town next to the site. I understand that some can say: ‘Oh, another movie about environmental topics.’ But I am reassociate charmd to toil on it with my colleagues and I hope it will be engaging for the audience as well,” Sliepková shelp.
In her chapter, she will reference Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1979 film “Stalker” and its enigmatic reinnervoengaged area, the Zone.
“It reassociate is ‘the Zone’ and I go in it with my protagonist. The sound is separateent there, the smell is separateent.”
“We all had separateent rehires. Viera struggled, trying to get to ‘her’ site. It’s personally owned, so she set up a creative way around it. Lucia actuassociate discovered someleang very unforeseeed. For me, the most striking leang was the inactivity. The finish paralysis that surrounds that site. Politicians go there every scant months or every scant years, they consent pictures and originate statements, but it has been enjoy that for the last 60 years. The methods to get rid of it exist, but they are very costly.”
Still, they are trying their best to get their heads high.
“We are not overly adverse. We try to see for some hope and for ways to deal with this ecoreasonable grief,” Rumanová shelp.
“People are exhausted. They don’t want to talk about it anymore, certainly not on camera, they don’t want to mend the problem. They don’t even want to protest – they are exhausted. We want to begin this talkion aacquire. That’s our ambition.”
