
Slovakia Divided: Between Russia and Europe
Slovakia's political split runs through a mountain lodge, a newsroom, and the streets of Bratislava. Prime Minister Robert Fico, once a mainstream Social Democrat turned nationalist, has stalled EU sanctions on Russia while attacking the press and courts, and this film tracks the friction that has produced. Viktor Beránek, who has run Chata pod Rysmi, Slovakia's highest mountain lodge, for nearly fifty years, loses his lease after speaking out against Fico. In Bratislava, editor-in-chief Peter Bárdy of Aktuality.sk argues the government's moves are less about ideology than cronyism and self-preservation, while crowds gather regularly to protest judicial interference and closer ties to Moscow. On the other side, 22-year-old law student and influencer Terezka Mičianiková, from Trnava, makes the case for a Slovakia-first government skeptical of Brussels. The film moves between these figures rather than picking a side outright, using their daily lives and interviews to show how a small EU member state is being pulled between Western integration and a more Moscow-friendly nationalism.