Cinema of Slovakia - Questions Over National Origin

Questions Over National Origin

Given that in the periods from the invention of film in 1896 to 1938 and from 1945 to 1992 Slovakia did not exist as an independent country, there has been some controversy over the naming of certain films as specifically either Slovak or Czech. Although the Czech and Slovak halves of Czechoslovakia each had separate languages, they were close enough for film talent to move freely between the two republics. As a result, during the Czechoslovak period — and even after it — a number of Slovak directors made Czech-language films in Prague, including Juraj Herz]] and Juraj Jakubisko.

Particularly intense debate arose in the 1990s around the Oscar-winning The Shop on Main Street, which was jointly directed by one Budapest-born Jewish Slovak director (Ján Kadár) and one Czech director (Elmar Klos), based on a short story written in Czech by Jewish Slovak author Ladislav Grosman, financed by the central authorities through the films studio at Prague and shot on location in Slovakia in the Slovak language with Slovak actors. Czechs generally consider the film to be Czech (while they see the theme as Slovak) on the basis of the film's studio and the home of its directors; Slovaks generally consider the film to be Slovak on the basis of its language, themes, and filming locations, but some see it as Czech because the sound stage was at and the centrally-distributed government funding was channeled through the Barrandov Film Studio in Prague.