Culture shorts

Šuvadová movie opens festival in LA


Silvia Šuvadová and Carlos Gallardo
photo: Christian Sosa

BEHAVING BADLY, a new indie film featuring Slovak actress Silvia Šuvadová, opened the third LA Femme Film Festival on October 11 in Los Angeles. The festival showcases works by female filmmakers.

Šuvadová plays a small town doctor who finds herself questioning fidelity, sexuality and happiness as her community's indiscretions are brought to light.

Behaving Badly found a home at the event because of its strong female cast and crew that includes co-star Natalie Miston, production designer Suzanne Rattigan, and screenwriter Linda Weiss.

Šuvadová is best known for her performance as Blanka in the Academy Award winning film Kolya.



Gypsy Devils fire up Helsinki


Silvia Šarköziová
photo: SITA

The Roma music band Cigánski Diabli (The Gypsy Devils) gave a nearlz sold-out concert in Helsinki on October 3. It was the first time the eight-member ensemble, led by soloist and violin virtuoso Štefan Banyák, performed in northern Europe. The concert was organised by the Slovak Embassy in Finland and the Savoy Theatre in Helsinki.

The Gypsy Devils' repertoire ranged from Slovak and Russian folk music to world ethno music, classical music, and themes from operettas.

The main performers included Ernest Šarközi, who's known as the "cimbalom magician"; his wife, Silvia, who plays the cello; and Zoltán Grunza, the group's masterful clarinetist.

The Gypsy Devils is the new name of The Devil's Violin, Slovakia's most famous gypsy ensemble. The group renamed itself after its violin soloist left in August.



Marek Vadas gets Litera Award


LIEČITEĽ (HEALER) by Marek Vadas received the Anasoft Litera Award on October 4 for best work of fiction of 2006. Along with the prize, Vadas received a check for Sk200,000.

The jury that selected Healer praised it for its "interesting blend of fantasy and reality, the magical and ordinary, and life and death".

"It took me more than seven years to write the book," Vadas told the Pravda daily. He added that he had used the time to travel to Africa for inspiration. "I write mostly during the night," he said.

This was the second year of the Anasoft Litera Award. Last year's award went to Pavel Vilikovský for his collection Magic Parrot and Other Hack-Works. The jury short-listed 10 books in the first round this year, including some by Robert Bielik, Dušan Dušek, Jana Juráňová, Monika Kompaníková, Márius Kopcsay, Silvester Lavrík, Rút Lichnerová, Pavel Vilikovský, and Svetlana Žuchová.


Prepared by Jana Liptáková

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