Abetted by the brilliant Igor Luther’s grainy, overexposed black-and-white cinematography, Jakubisko’s inventive, existential, semi-autobiographical debut feature “signaled not only the birth of an exceptional talent, but also the birth of a Slovak style” (Mira and Antonín J. Liehm). Two brothers in their early 30s – the film’s original Slovak title translates literally as “Christ’s Years”, alluding directly to the age of 33 as being when one is at one’s peak – establish, through their absurdist games, that life is made up of “love, foolishness and death”.

Digital print courtesy of the Slovak Film Institute