MS. PRESIDENT

For five years, up until 2024, Zuzana Čaputová served as Slovakia's first female head of state – a tenure marked by crises and pushback against the powerful populist currents centred around Robert Fico. Throughout this entire period, a film team was permitted to follow her at close range, even during moments that remained hidden from other cameras, capturing political and personal dramas, reaction to the brutal Russian invasion of neighbouring Ukraine, confrontations with the populist SMER party and pro-Russian Prime Minister Robert Fico and encounters with heads of state, but also interactions with ordinary citizens and engagement with their everyday problems. In doing so, Marek Šulík has managed to create an extraordinarily intimate portrait. MS. PRESIDENT is a film about an impressive woman attempting to establish a humane, open approach in the traditionally male-dominated, competition-oriented world of senior political circles – while still being there for her daughter. A glimpse inside the corridors of power that shows how stressful and uncompromising the business of politics can be – particularly for a woman who has made change her mission. German Premiere