documentary feature film / 2014
directed by: Anabela Zigova
cinematography: Tomas Vitek
edited by: Jana N.
Does an unresolved past potentially pose a risk for future?
The documentary Salto Mortale reveals the desperate actions of parents during the communist regime, and their irreversible consequences that are still with us today.
Salto Mortale examines “the legacy of silence” and the dilemma of today’s generation of Slovaks as they attempt to confront their communist past and the missing files of the secret police, which contain references to family and friends. Many former secret police are still active in Slovak public life.
The collective amnesia about this part of Slovak heritage (the period from 1968 until today) poses the question of whether present Slovak political culture potentially risks a repetition of its dark past.
The topic of collaboration with the Secret Police (StB) was explored in several movies made in Slovakia and also abroad. Salto Mortale is exceptional since the author deals with this issue through the experience of her own family. Anabela Zigova in the film searches for the second identity of her father, who she recently learned was an agent for the StB. The film thus becomes a courageous, authentic and true personal testimony.
By telling her own story about her family and father, Anabela fosters a deeper understanding of the prevailing silence, and helps to mobilize an inter-generational awareness of the totalitarian past, as well as point out surveillance issues still relevant today in Slovakia and abroad.
