PIARGY

In the spring of 1939, the Slovak village of Piargy was buried under an avalanche. The sole survivor, young Johanka, claims the tragedy was God's punishment for the sinful behaviour of a woman who gave birth to the antichrist. While the local Catholic Church conducts its own investigations, the last years of the village are replayed in a series flashbacks. The linchpin of the story is the farm of the rich and authoritarian farmer Rohac who has his eye on Juliši, his son Martin's attractive wife. In beguiling black-and-white imagery this historical drama revives a long-lost village world, the laws of which still reverberate to this day. A brutal, archaic patriarchy resists modernisation, objectifies women and enjoys the backing of conservative priests. And nevertheless the villagers, shaped as they are by superstition and anti-Semitism, do not degenerate into prototypes of a backward race as this fascinating, visually powerful historical film unfolds, one rich in folklore and horror elements about a world caught between superstition, patriarchy and emerging ultra-nationalism.

Text: Kira Taszman
English: Peter Rickerby

Kammerbühne: original version with English subtitles + German simultaneous translation

Gladhouse: original version with English subtitles + German simultaneous translation