Travertine – the Slovak Marble

Paľo Bielik / Slovakia / 1942 / Czech Premiere / 8 min.

synopsis

A production film about the extraction of travertine - Slovak marble, its symbolic meaning, and its use.

Exploitation - the extraction of mineral wealth was an important feature of the modernisation of Slovakia in the economic framework of Hitler’s “New Europe”. Paľo Bielik has processed this motif into a sympathetic film about the extraction and cultural use of travertine, an indigenous “Slovakian” rock of specific visual qualities. In a quasi-creative narrative arc, the film presents the process of processing “Slovak marble” from the first drilling, to the impressive Štefánik’s Mound at Bradla.

biography

Paľo Bielik (1910–1983)
The most successful embodiment of Janosik to this day, also a founding figure of Slovak film directing activities – the author of Wolves’ Lairs and Captain Dabac decided to pursue a career as a director in 1942, after a few years of acting at the National Theatre. In Nástup, he made approximately a dozen documentaries, some of which already bear his dashing “boyish” writing style.