When Grandpa Was a Boy

It is January 1945. The National Uprising is underway in Slovakia. Little Ďurko survives another day in a war village by serving his sentence for his latest crime. His two friends come to him with a captured grenade, which they accidentally trigger and don't know what to do with it. Ďurko has to make a quick decision between saving his friends and another punishment from his mother. He keeps his cool, disobeys his mother, snatches the grenade from the children and throws it away. He saves everyone, but the grenade hits the roof of the house of the friends he just saved. Mom punishes Ďurko for the damage he has done. For Ďurko, it is just another day in the post-war village. However, his friends later embark on another crime, unfortunately, Ďurko is no longer there to save them.

Director’s statement
“When grandpa was a boy” is a story truly lived by my own grandfather. So obviously there is a personal layer on my side to want to direct it. To show the legacy of him and tell the story of a boy living his childhood in war. Another much more personal layer is hereditary. Few years of searching my behavioral patterns with psychoanalytic therapy led me to an idea. If I really want to understand the pathology of men in my family, I need to understand what happened to my predeccesors. Theme of the movie is simply fear. Fear of war, fear of others, fear of what will be next. The story was left in my drawer for over 10 years, waiting for the right time I guess.
Unfortunately. Now, when I see my country's tendencies of history repeating itself, there is an anxiety growing in me and the urge to do my part as an artist. To show what already happened once and hope it doesn't need to happen again.