ZÂzrak

Fifteen-year-old Ela is driven to a children's home by her mother and the latter's new boyfriend. Pacified by medication, she lies asleep on the backseat. On awaking she catches sight on a run-down building with barred windows, through which peek the faces of young girls just like her. Immediately understanding what's happening Ela tries to escape, unsuccessfully. She wants to try her luck in England, where she plans to work as a hairdresser, and see Roby, who caught her shoplifting in a supermarket only to take sympathy and let her go. On gaining her freedom at the second attempt, the reality of life beyond the four walls of the children's home strikes her as somewhat less promising than she had imagined: Her mother betrays her to the police and Roby appears less than happy to see her, preoccupied as he is with drugs and debts. Ela decides to help him, hard-up and pursued by a gang of particularly unsavoury characters as he is, without foreseeing the consequences.

ZÁZRAK (MIRACLE) is the documentary-like feature film début of Juraj Lehotský, who assembled a convincing group of amateur actors, headed by Michaela Bendulová who plays Ela and actually has a similar background to the protagonist. Turning slowly, the camera pauses time and again on the faces of the protagonists, presenting an up-close and authentic depiction of the troubled story of a young girl forced to grow up under difficult circumstances.