Film production from the silent movie era

The creation and production of other Slovak feature films during the silent period was isolated and sporadic. This was due to the unsatisfactory conditions in which Slovak cinematography developed, including the lack of financial support and technological capacity. The situation in Slovakia was distinctively different from that in the Czech Republic where, in the course of 20 years, the conditions for a thriving film industry were developed.
Slovakia was used mostly for shooting the outdoor scenes of Czech and foreign films. The most famous of these was the German film Upír Nosferatu (Nosferatu – eine Symphonie des Grauens, 1922), some scenes of which were shot at Orava Castle and in the High Tatras.
Another Czech film that was at least partly shot in Slovakia during the inter-war period was the second film based on the Slovak national legendary hero Jánošík (1935), this time by Czech director Martin Frič. The screenplay was written by Karol Plicka, Martin Frič and Karol Hašler based on material by dramatist Jiří Mahen. In addition to Paľo Bielik, who played the main role, several other Slovak actors also appeared. This film combined a dramatic action story with lyrical elements and folkloric motifs from the life of the Slovak people. It may be seen as a typical Czechoslovak film in so far as its storyline complies with the period tendencies of a common state, nation and culture, depicting Prague as the focus of a centralised political, economic and cultural life. Frič’s Jánošík enjoyed more success at the box office than the earlier version, and after its screening at the Venice Festival it became the most commercially-successful Czechoslovak film abroad and was sold to 32 countries.
Like the Siakeľ brothers’ Jánošík, the other Slovak feature film of the silent period, entitled Strídža spod hája (‘A Little Witch from the Grove’, 1922), owed its existence to the Slovak expatriate community in America. In this case it was the American Slovak Ján Barto who, along with Pavol Jamriška, established the Barto-Jamriška Film Studio in Klenovec. Their feature film project was based on an amateur theatre performance of the play of the same name by Ferko Urbánek. Unfortunately only stills from this film have survived. It was screened in several Slovak cinemas, but income from distribution was so low that the company went bankrupt and Ján Barto returned to the USA in 1924.
Besides the 1921 version of Jánošík and Strídža spod hája, references to only a few other feature films from the silent period have survived. No more than 10 productions were made in Slovakia during this period and the majority of the production companies involved ceased operations after their first film. Due mainly to a shortage of financial resources and trained film professionals, the production of feature films in Slovakia remained practically impossible throughout the silent film era.