The Border

For seven years, a small film crew visited the inhabitants of the village Slemence, which in 1946 found itself divided between two countries from one day to the next: Czechoslovakia and the Ukraine (then still part of the Soviet Union). The cemetery, fields and whole families were split apart. The border, drawn at random, did not take into account the inhabitants, who now have to travel 150 km to the city to get a visa to visit the other side. Relatives call to each other over the fence to pass on the latest news about weddings and funerals.
The Slovakian documentary makers of The Border take a keen look at the absurd events that take place at their border. The director Jaroslav Vojtek and the experienced scriptwriter Marek Lescak (Blind Loves, 2008) were on the spot during the Slovak referendum for a mission to the EU, which made the border controls even stricter. They show unerringly how political decisions made on paper can have disastrous consequences on the ground.