Eugen Gindl

The story of the extraordinary friendship of three great Slovak modernist poets who formed the legendary literary group "The Lonely Runners" in 1963. The group’s existence was announced in the manifesto “The Merits of Three-legged Nightingales” and their motto posited that “the good angels of humanity return to our minds and feelings – frankness of speech, nobility of intentions and righteousness of deeds”. Physically, they parted ways: Peter Repka moved to Germany in the 1970s, Ivan Laučík lived most of his life in the peaceful Liptovsky Mikulas and Ivan Štrpka in Bratislava. Even though their meetings were rare, their friendship held strong despite all obstacles. Their work is still considered one of the most important in modern Slovak poetry. The film follows a meeting of these three giants of poetry and their journey together, during which they meet with friends and visit places important to them. A story of an inspirational friendship.

In 1950, Jozef watched the communists assume control over his native Hungary. He was too young to have an opinion about it, but he was mightily impressed all the same. Now it is 1968, and he is a young man. When the Russian tanks come rolling through his village on their way to suppress the stirrings of freedom in Prague, he does what he can to ensure that he's in good odor with those who will inevitably come out on top. This meandering political drama is apparently an exploration of opportunism, but reviewers gave it low marks for clarity of exposition.

In 1950, Jozef watched the communists assume control over his native Hungary. He was too young to have an opinion about it, but he was mightily impressed all the same. Now it is 1968, and he is a young man. When the Russian tanks come rolling through his village on their way to suppress the stirrings of freedom in Prague, he does what he can to ensure that he's in good odor with those who will inevitably come out on top. This meandering political drama is apparently an exploration of opportunism, but reviewers gave it low marks for clarity of exposition.

Slovakia's submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2007