Servants

Ivan Ostrochovský’s stark drama about a seminary’s struggles for religious independence under Communist rule is both beautiful and brutal.

The year is 1980. Michal and Juraj are students at a theological seminary in totalitarian Czechoslovakia. Fearing the dissolution of their school, the tutors are moulding the seminarians into a shape satisfactory to the ruling Communist Party. The two young men face a choice: collaborate with the regime or resist and endure endless persecution from it.

Newcomers Samuel Polakovic (Michal) and Samuel Skyva (Juraj) star alongside veteran Romanian actor Vlad Ivanov in Ivan Ostrochovský’s striking black-and-white drama, which premiered at Berlin.