The Slovak Film and Television Academy (SFTA) has pronounced Martin Šulík’s latest feature, The Interpreter [+lire aussi :
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interview : Martin Šulík
fiche film], unveiled at this year’s Berlinale, Slovakia’s bid for the Oscar for Best Foreign-language Film. Šulík’s film recently won the San Francisco Film Critics’ Award at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. San Francisco Film Critics Circle (SFFCC) members noted, “Our hope is that this SFFCC Award will encourage a broader audience to seek out this expertly crafted, beautifully acted, Slovakian-set film that eloquently ruminates on the Holocaust’s shattering legacy.”

Peter Simonischek, who won the European Film Award for Best Actor in 2016 for his turn in Maren Ade’s internationally acclaimed Toni Erdmann [+lire aussi :
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Q&A : Maren Ade
fiche film], stars opposite Oscar-winning Czech director Jiří Menzel as they play an unlikely duo of octogenarians in Šulík’s road movie. As one of the characters attempts to unearth the events surrounding the death of his parents at the hands of an Austrian SS officer, the other tries to learn more about his father’s past. The Interpreter was also picked to represent Slovakia at the European Film Awards. The SFTA’s members had to choose among 12 domestic fiction, documentary and animated features.

The Interpreter marks Šulík’s seventh film sent to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, an unprecedented feat in domestic cinema. The film has been sold to the Benelux, Greece and China.

The Interpreter was produced by Titanic (Slovakia), In Film Praha (Czech Republic) and Coop99 Filmproduktion (Austria). International sales of the film are being handled by French company Celluloid Dreams.