SERVANTS

goEast kicks off its special anniversary edition with uncompromising cinematic art in striking black and white. The year is 1980, the setting: a monastery in Czechoslovakia. The Prague Spring is a distant memory. The Catholic Church is controlled by Pacem in Terris, a regime-sponsored organisation and forced to collaborate with the Czechoslovak government. Animated by the recent election of John Paul II, the Polish dissident pope, a handful of priests begin to preach outside of the church. Alas, the regime strikes back with a vengeance. In the meticulously composed images of his second feature film, Ivan Ostrochovský relates the experiences of two young seminary students, Juraj and Michal, who must submit to a range of regulations previously unknown to them. Rules of the Catholic Church, but also rules of the communist regime, enforced by the secret police, namely the ceaseless meddling of the cruel, dermatologically challenged doctor Ivan (played by goEast jury member Vlad Ivanov, who learned Slovak especially for this role). Ostrochovský processes real-life events in his neonoir thriller, based on a screenplay by IDA author Rebecca Lenkiewicz. A radical work, realised in a spectacularly uncompromising manner.