Let There Be Light  

Nech je svetlo / Let There Be Light  

Marko Škop, Slovakia, Czechia, 2019, 93’

Focusing on a father and son, the story reflects on a society steeped in traditionalism and machismo, and the mechanisms enabling the rise of the radical right in Slovakia and beyond. 

Milan has three children and does construction work in Germany in order to provide for his family in Slovakia. While at home over Christmas, he discovers that his eldest son Adam is a member of a paramilitary youth group. The boy is involved in bullying and the death of a classmate. The father has to decide what to do. In this process, along with his wife, he comes to discover the real truth about their son, their family, themselves and the community around them.  

“I am interested in the theme of an ordinary man, one out of the millions, who takes part in the mass xenophobic soul with his own tiny, ignorant particle, when he is confronted with the consequences of hatred in a hard way through events that occur in his own family. I have the feeling that there exists just a very thin line between affiliation to our own people, to people just like me on the one hand, and a broken nose on the other, when I stop being in harmony with them. I would like to try to depict evil and the mistakes that can lead to it in our unstable existence.” – Marko Škop, Cineuropa 

“Let There Be Light is a multilayered drama depicting struggles of a family in a collective social portrait where radicalization is the answer in economically less fortunate regions. Yet this is just one symptom that Škop touches upon. The film addresses more issues pertaining to the current times and not solely in the poorer regions of Central and Eastern European countries. The writer-director turns to the topics of fatherhood, masculinity, intergenerational gap and father figures. 

Škop’s latest drama is a meticulously crafted piece of realist cinema where the writer-director takes on a complex topic he treats with corresponding seriousness and urgency and film language. While the film may be a complex of a myriad of motifs coagulating, the final result is an audience-oriented family drama transcending to a larger and timely social context.” – Martin Kudlac, ScreenAnarchy 

Marko Škop (1974) has degrees in Journalism and in Film Direction. His full-length documentary directorial debut Other Worlds (Ine svety, 2006) won a Special Mention from the Jury at Karlovy Vary IFF and was the first documentary in the festival’s history to win the Audience Award. His second directorial full-length documentary film Osadné (2009) was awarded Best Documentary at the Karlovy Vary IFF. His film Eva Nová (2015) premiered at Toronto IFF, where it won the FIPRESCI Prize. His latest film Let There Be Light (2019) has been selected for Karlovy Vary IFF.  

The screening will be followed by a discussion with Mark Škop and Igor Mirković.