Unbalanced
Transformational events cannot be predicted. Hope for a new beginning with tragic circumstances and absurd humor. Authorial film based on real events.
Idealistic translator Nadia (50) finds new stability with her daughter (12) after a difficult post-divorce period. She manages to buy a flat at a bargain price and hope returns to her life, undisturbed even by the omnipresent COVID. She soon discovers that there lives a woman, in the immediate neighbourhood, who turns out to be more than eccentric. The perceptive Nadia senses her disturbed mental health and treats her receptively, which draws Valika’s attention to herself all the more and begins to experience a nightmare. A futile effort to help solve the situation starts with contacting the others and ends with a grotesque portrayal of a system, in which ignoring problems is an essential survival tool. Nadia has no choice but to embark on another journey…
A fiction full length debut of renowned Slovak woman documentary filmmaker Zuzana Piussi and her long term co-laborator, writer, linguist and authorial actor Ingrid Hrubaničová, open the view at modern society via a single mother, an ageing and frustrated woman who hardly admits both. The film work with tragedy of everyday life with a dark humor, which is common for both artists and their roots in famous alternative theatre scene of Bratislava of the 90-ies.
Poster
- Unbalanced
- CZ/SK 2022, 79 mins.
- Script: Ingrid Hrubaničová
- Directing: Zuzana Piussi
- DOP: Martin Štrba
- Editing: Vít Janeček
- Sound mix: Jan Richtr
- Music: Lucia Piussi
- Costumes: Tatiana Piussi
- Dramaturgy: Hedvika Hansalová
- Cast: Ingrid Hrubaničová (Nadia), Vladimír Zboroň (Vlado), Jaroslava Sisáková (Valika), Daniela Gudabová (neighbour woman), Tatiana Marta Rehúšová (the daughter), Ľudmila Lukačíková Kozmenko (Mrs. Žiačiková), Peter Kalmus (a homeless man), Peter Bálik (a homeless man), Róbert Zipser (a homeless man), Ivan Dianiška (a pilot), Ivan Ostrochovský (the publisher), Zvonko Lakčević (publisher’s friend), Jozef Tkáč (Nadia’s father), Michal Ďuriš (a doctor), Mária Breinerová (the guardian Mrs. Deáková), Valéria Fürješová (Mrs Belanová), Lucia Stankovská Fričová (the lawyer dr. Navrátilová), Karolína Poláková (the lawyer dr. Baráthová), Vít Bednárik (a passing by driver), Ondrej Gubač (the first broker), Milan Chalmovský (a second broker), Petra Fornayová (the flat buyer), Zuzana Kovalčíková (a nurse), Iveta Baňárová as the receptionist and others
- Producer: Vít Janeček – D1film (CZ), VIRUSfilm (SK)
- Co-producer: Michal Mocňák – RUR (CZ)
- Support: Audiovisual fund – development + production (SK), Czech Film Fund (CZ) – production, Bratislava District Film Fund – development (SK), Bratislava City Cultural Fund – production (SK)
- Workshops: Torino Film Lab Extended 2019, MIDPOINT Special Consultation with Gyula Gazdag 2019
- Status: released
- The Black Nights IFF Tallin, Estonia (2022) – First Films Competitition (The World Premiere)
- Dolina Miru KinEst Fest Catania, Italy (2023) – official selection / intl competition
- Galway Film Fleadh, Ireland (2023) – official selection / first films competition
- Filmfestival Kitzbühel, Austria (2023) – official selection / intl competition
- Rhode Island International Film Festival, USA (2023) – official selection / intl competition
- Santa Fe International Film Festival, USA (2023) – official selection / intl competition
- Cinefem – Festival Internacional de Cine de la Mujer, Punta del Este, Urugua (2023) – Best Acress Award
- Cyprus International Film Festival “Golden Aphrodite” (2023) – intl competition
- Bridges International Film Festival, Corinthia (2023) – Best Woman’s film Award