Drama / Historical

Slovakia / Czech Republic / Poland / Belgium, 2025, 102 min

Director: Martin Gonda
Screenplay: Martin Šuster, Dominika Udvorková, Martin Gonda
Camera: Oliver Záhlava

Actors: Sára Chripáková, Jozef Pantlikáš, Katarína Babejová, Vladimíra Štefániková, Michal Soltész, Vladimír Čema, Igor Latta, Stanislav Pitoňák, Světlana Škovranová, Jevgenij Libezňuk, Cyril Drozda,

Locations in the Košice region: Šrobárova Gymnasium Košice, Main Street Košice

The debut feature film of Košice native Martin Gonda is the first narrative film about the Rusyns in the Rusyn language. Alongside professional actors, non-actors from the Rusyn community also appear, adding authenticity and a strong regional character to the story. The non-actresses Sára Chripáková and Katarína Babejová never saw the script. The director rehearsed with them scene by scene for three months prior to filming.

Flood takes place in 1980 in Czechoslovakia. Fifteen-year-old Mara dreams of becoming a pilot and leaving her village, but her father Alexander, a Rusyn farmer and widower, wants her to stay and work at home. When their valley faces flooding due to the construction of the Starina reservoir, father and daughter must cope not only with the loss of their home, but also with finding a way to understand each other. The film is also a story of a generational divide. In this context, the character of Mara represents a young, emancipatory perspective — a girl who refuses to accept the fate of a housewife and seeks her own way to live freely.

The film was shot mainly in the towns of Medzilaborce, Humenné, Snina, and Košice, as well as in smaller villages such as Čertižné, Svetlice, and Nechválová Polianka. In Košice itself, filming took place, for example, on Main Street and at Šrobárova Gymnasium, which was temporarily transformed into a Military Aviation Secondary School.

It is an environmentally produced film in accordance with so-called “green filming” practices. Its world premiere took place at the prestigious Mar del Plata Festival (07.11.2026) in Latin America, and it was also screened at one of the most renowned film festivals in Asia, the International Film Festival of India in Goa.