Osadné is a small town on the easternmost border of the European Union. The original Rusyn population is shrinking, the cows are extinct, and the statue of Andy Warhol, whose parents came from this town, has seen better days. It’s time for desperate measures and the mayor and priest hope the village’s future lies in tourism.
The mayor of Osadné, Mr. Ladislav Mikuláško, is a political record-holder. He has held the position of the village boss for 36 years. His spiritual counterpart, Orthodox priest Peter Soroka, has buried 50 people and christened two children over the past five years. Ladislav and Peter decide to fight for the survival of the village and ask the PR manager of the Rusyn Revival Movement, Fedor Vico, to help them. Vico manages to draw a visitor from Brussels to Osadné — member of the European Parliament Milan Gal’a is touched by the situation in the village and he invites the local politicians to Brussels.
The mayor, priest, and a local journalist hatch their plan to travel to Brussels, where they hope former astronaut and current EU politician Vladimir Remek will help them get a foot in the door. These inexperienced travelers are out of their element in the giant steel and glass EU headquarters. Their endearing awkwardness shines when the priest offers the communist and atheist Remek a religious present, and then proposes that an EU commissioner come hunt in their village — painful, for the man is opposed to hunting. They meet elite European politicians who they make familiar with some of their project ideas, which include building a “chapel of grief” in their village to draw visitors.
During numerous dryly comic scenes, the camera is always there at the right moment to capture the hope and disappointment, a duality clearly familiar to the residents of Osadné.
Best Documentary, 2009 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Czech Republic
Director’s biography
A graduate of Commenius University in Bratislava (FiFUK) in 1996 at the department of Journalism and from the Academy of Music Arts in Bratislava (VŠMU) in 2001, Marko Skop is a director and producer of documentary films.
Preceded by: Bye Bye Now Aideen O’Sullivan and Ross Whitaker, Ireland, 2009, 15 minutes
An amusing and poignant documentary about the fate of the Irish phone box, which has gone from the centre of society to the verge of extinction, Bye Bye Now is a bitter sweet tribute, a historical document and a barometer of how much we’ve changed.
Audience Award for Best Short Film, 2009 Cork International Film Festival, Ireland
