The Flood

Martin
Gonda

(1990, Slovakia)
 Selected filmography: Pura Vida (2019)

In a remote Ruthenian village in eastern Czechoslovakia in the early 1980s, fifteen-year-old Mara dreams of becoming a pilot and flying beyond the limits of her world. Instead, she faces a harsh routine – farm work, a strict father, and a life bound by unchanging traditions. Planes occasionally pass overhead, but any real chance of escape remains far away. The fragile balance is broken by a plan to build a dam that will flood the village and its surroundings. The world Mara knows begins to fall apart, along with the certainties of its inhabitants. Director Martin Gonda’s feature debut is an observational coming-of-age drama set against a vanishing world. With subtlety and without pathos, it portrays the clash between tradition and the desire for freedom, as well as a deep bond to a place becoming the past. In a slow, elegiac tone, it tells a story of loss, departure, and hope that endures despite everything.