PODCAST| Angelo Acerbi interviews Martin Sulik, director of the film The Intrepreter.

To listen to the interview, click on the ► icon on the right, just above the picture

Martin Sulik tells us about his film, a classic but intense trip back to through the memories of the Nazi era, from two old men, a Jew who suffered the loss of his family through the hands of the father of the other, who did not want to come to terms with his father’s past, until now. Urgent and compelling, a film that tells us about the incredible revisions of this recent past made by some governments and institutions in Slovakia, but not only there.

The Intrepreter:  An 80-year-old translator, Ali Ungar, comes across a book written by a former SS officer recounting his war experiences in Slovakia. Ali realises that one of the chapters may well describe his own parents’ execution. And so, armed with a pistol, he sets off to Vienna to look for the SS man and take his revenge. But once there, the only person he encounters is the man’s 70-year-old son Georg, a former teacher who has spent his whole life avoiding his father and suffering from an addiction to alcohol. The translator’s visit arouses Georg’s curiosity and he decides to invite Ali on a trip through Slovakia. But whilst Georg is basically out to have a good time, Ali is hoping to find out how his parents really died. Gradually, these two very different men begin to warm to each other and together, they discover a country that would prefer to forget about its past. Oscillating between comedy and tragedy, Martin Sulík’s road movie focuses on two old men weighed down by the unresolved conflicts that have plagued their lives who are now trying to free themselves from this oppressive burden. Jirí Menzel plays the role of the gloomy and worldly-wise Ali, Peter Simonischek is the maverick Georg.