‘Wasteland Chronicles,’ About Toxic Dump Sites in Slovakia, Wins at Ji.hlava Doc Festival: ‘What Happens to the Environment Affects Us All’
“Wasteland Chronicles,” directed by Viera ?ákanyová, Barbora Sliepková and Lucia Ka?ová, has received the New Visions Award at Ji.hlava Documentary Film Festival for the most promising European project.
It comes with post-production services valued at €15,000 (courtesy of UPP) and €5,000 (Soundsquare). You can find the full list of winners here.
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“The first idea for the film came from Lucia. The ex-Minister of Environment in Slovakia made a promise to get rid of three toxic landfills. We wanted to follow up on that. She suggested we direct it together. We would join our voices to talk about these issues, focusing on one of these sites,” Sliepková told Variety after picking up the award.
“Each of us has a different approach and we decided it can actually be a strength. We will do it in three separate chapters; they will all have different visual and narrative styles.”
The upcoming hybrid documentary, produced by Anna Mach Rumanová and Martina Netíková for Slovakia’s Filmsomnia and Czech Republic’s Cinémotif Films, is now in production, with the premiere set for spring of 2026.
It takes on the so-called “Triangle of Death” situated in eastern Slovakia, where three chemical plants are responsible for the largest PCB contamination in Europe.
“At first, after the Minister’s declaration, we expected something to happen, but nothing ever did. It motivated us to talk about bureaucracy and this feeling of helplessness, when you are convinced nothing will ever change and that nobody cares. It’s not a priority for any government, so yes – it’s a political film,” Rumanová added.
Sliepková noted: “We are not investigative journalists, so even though we closely follow this case, we talk to the mayors and all the people involved, we still want to make an artistic film. But our statement is political, whether it’s a proper investigation or a poem.”
Despite its specific setting, the story they set out to tell goes beyond Slovakian borders. With the New Visions jurors praising their “collaborative approach to the subject matter [that] feels both inspiring and urgent.”
“It’s not just some ‘local story.’ People in our governments, whether it’s European Union or the entire world, just don’t want to take responsibility for these things,” says the director, with Rumanová adding: “What happens to the environment affects us all. In this case, it actually affects a big water reservoir, one of the biggest in Central Europe. In her part of the film, Viera explores this idea of mycelium [root-like structure of a fungus] connecting us all.”
The mostly female team brings another point of view to the case, she noted.
“It’s less authoritative and more sensitive. At first, it was an accident that we had these three female directors and a female producer. Later, when I was looking for a co-producer, I decided to continue doing that. It just feels natural.”
She wants to make sure that, despite the seriousness of its subject, “Wasteland Chronicles” can still affect the viewers.
“Whenever I do something, I imagine showing it to the people directly affected by it. I want to give it back to them, in a way, to show the film in that small town next to the site. I know that some can say: ‘Oh, another movie about environmental topics.’ But I am really happy to work on it with my colleagues and I hope it will be interesting for the audience as well,” Sliepková said.
In her chapter, she will reference Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1979 film “Stalker” and its mysterious restricted area, the Zone.
“It really is ‘the Zone’ and I enter it with my protagonist. The sound is different there, the smell is different.”
“We all had different issues. Viera struggled, trying to get to ‘her’ site. It’s privately owned, so she found a creative way around it. Lucia actually discovered something very surprising. For me, the most striking thing was the inactivity. The complete paralysis that surrounds that site. Politicians go there every few months or every few years, they take pictures and make statements, but it has been like that for the last 60 years. The methods to get rid of it exist, but they are very costly.”
Still, they are trying their best to keep their heads high.
“We are not overly negative. We try to look for some hope and for ways to deal with this ecological grief,” Rumanová said.
“People are tired. They don’t want to talk about it anymore, certainly not on camera, they don’t want to solve the problem. They don’t even want to protest – they are exhausted. We want to start this discussion again. That’s our ambition.”
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