Exponáty alebo príbehy z kaštieľa

Time passes at its own gentle pace at a castle and its grounds located in the Slovak town of Stupava. Occasionally an athletic old guy whizzes past in his wheelchair; his determination and life creed – “anything’s possible if you apply yourself” – are cleverly articulated via the sound of racing cars. We see another wheelchair, whose elderly occupant was imprisoned for 15 years for shooting a policeman. The local old people’s home also provides refuge to a curious philosopher and inventor with a fondness for neologisms, a lawyer known as The Classic, the taciturn Liduška, who collects pigeons’ feathers, and Major František who’s always at the bottle. Loosely interweaving his characters’ life stories, Slovak documentarist Pavol Korec pieces together a colourful mosaic portraying the fate of people “who have lost everything; all they have left is life.” This subtle, light-hearted and, at the same time, highly compelling portrait of the “live exhibits” at the castle will strike a chord with viewers, also for its evocative atmosphere and superb scripting. (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)