World premiere

The Unbalanced

Local title
Tasakaalust väljas
Original title
Zošalieť
Director
Zuzana Piussi
Country
Czech Republic, Slovakia
Year
2022
Programme
First Feature Competition
Genre
comedy
Subject
interpersonal relationships, individual vs society, loneliness, absurd

When the foundations of one’s own home are shaken in cinema, the results can veer towards horror or comedy. Or both, as Zuzana Piussi’s first fiction feature after a variety of documentaries well proves.

After a painful divorce, 50-year-old Nadia finally finds a good flat for reasonable price for her and her daughter. Too good to be true, and soon, albeit too late, she comes to understand the reason for the bargain. Her close neighbour in the house is mentally ill Valika who terrorises everyone around her. Piussi’s film creates a string of absurd encounters with increasingly menacing effects, but it is – at its core – a fantastically precise film about humanism, its consequences, its possible limits.

Nadia’s natural sense of togetherness leads her to help Valika’s situation, but she only becomes an object of her attention in her madness. Nadia’s effort to connect various authorities to solve the situation leads to the recognition that she has become a part of long story of failing institutions where no one wants to take responsibility for a sensitive case. Can she balance her life again?

The film constantly surprises, be prepared to laugh and to be shocked while Nadia is searching for solutions. The peculiar tonal mixture, as stated by the director herself, is deeply rooted in the dark-humoured-works of the famous alternative theatre scene of Bratislava in the 1990s.

Christoph Gröner

Director
Zuzana Piussi
Screenwriter
Ingrid Hrubaničová
Cast
Ingrid Hrubaničová, Vladimír Zboroň, Jaroslava Sisáková, Daniela Gudabová, Tatiana Marta Rehúšová
Producer
Vít Janeček
DoP
Martin Štrba
Editor
Vít Janeček
Composer
Lucia Piussi
Production
D1film, VIRUSfilm
Runtime
Language
Slovak
Subtitles
Estonian, English
Director
Zuzana Piussi

Filmograafia Valik/Selected: Anjeli plačú (Angels Cry, 2005, doc), Babička (Grandmother, 2008, doc), Od Fica do Fica (From Fico to Fico, 2012, doc), Krehká identita (Fragile Identity, 2012, doc), Těžká volba (Difficult Choice, 2016, doc), Český Alláh (Czech Allah, 2017, doc), Ukradnutý štát (The State Capture, 2019, doc), Očista (The Ordeal, 2021, doc), Zošalieť (The Unbalanced, 2022)

Best Film Award, grant of 5000 euros from National Geographic

Screenings

2nd Hall Apollo Kino Coca-Cola Plaza
Screening090203 / Tasakaalust väljas
SubtitlesEnglish, Estonian
Q&A guestsZuzana Piussi (Film Director), Vit Janecek (Producer)
Q&A duration
Screening duration
Hall 1 Kino Artis
Screening131501 / Tasakaalust väljas
SubtitlesEnglish, Estonian
Screening duration
9th Hall Apollo Kino Coca-Cola Plaza
Screening150703 / Tasakaalust väljas
SubtitlesEnglish, Estonian
Screening duration
Trailer
Q&A with the filmmaker