BFI London Film Festival: Wave vs. Shore

BFI London Film Festival: 238 films. From 71 countries. 16 cinemas. 12 days. One Festival.

The Slovak New Wave (Miro Švol.k, Rudo Prekop, Jano Pavl.k, Vasil Stanko, Peter Župn.k, Tono Stano, Kamil Varga) was an extraordinary group of still photographers who made their impact in the early 1980s, disrupting the ‘normalised’ world of communist Czechoslovakia. Their guiding principles were play and irony, together with freedom of staging and gesture. And the results were startlingly original.

This directorial debut from award-winning cinematographer Martin Štrba focuses on the lives of the photographers themselves: their relationships and tragedies, identifying with their formal innovation and genuine creative freedom. Filmed for their collective exhibition, Štrba avoids the traditions of the art documentary with an approach that provides a sympathetic insight, bringing international attention to a significant movement.

(Notes by Peter Hames)

Wave vs. Shore, dir. Martin Štrba, Czech Republic-Slovakia 2014, 88 mins.