The opening film of this year's Ji.hlava will be Ms. President by Slovak director Marek Šulík. The time-lapse documentary chronicles Zuzana Čaputová's five years as Slovak President. This intimate film portrait presents Čaputová not only as a president, but also as an (un)ordinary woman who takes a country in crisis into her hands and becomes a symbol of hope. The film crew filmed her in situations where other cameras could not. It captured not only meetings with world leaders, but also personal dramas and dilemmas.
"The opening ceremony of this year's Ji.hlava IDFF will feature the film Ms. President, which is rare not only because of how close the director Marek Šulík was to the Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová, but also because of the speed with which it reaches the audience, as barely a few months have passed since the last shots were taken. At a time when a woman may become the next U.S. president, the film takes on yet another dimension, showing that Slovak society is perhaps even more divided than the American one. Ms. President is a universal testimony to the contemporary world. And it shows us up close what women face when they are in key positions in a system still dominated primarily by men. But despite everything, the film is above all an encouragement, namely to our own integrity and belief in values," said Marek Hovorka about the opening film.
"We politicians must have power over our emotions. We have to control our thoughts because the way we think is the way we become. And above all, we all must become better people now," Zuzana Čaputová sums up her approach to the presidency in the film.
"For me, the film has value on several levels. Personal, historical, political, civic... But the most important one is currently connected with Slovakia. I believe that the story it tells can have a cathartic value for many people who are frustrated by the dramatic change in political culture and who hesitate whether decency in life makes sense," says Marek Šulík, the director of Ms. President.
After its world premiere at the Ji.hlava IDFF, the film will be released in Czech cinemas by Aerofilms on 14 November.
