Matt Sarnecki’s documentary begins with the murder of a crusading Slovak reporter and takes us through the extraordinary aftermath. Ján Kuciak was a dogged investigative scribe, digging up dirt on his country’s most prominent gangsters, as well as their partners in the “legitimate” realms of business and politics. The 2018 assassination of Kuciak and his fiancée was surely intended as a warning to Slovakia’s media establishment, but in fact it had the opposite effect: cross-publication cooperation in an all-out effort to expose the guilty parties.
The story of that endeavour is rich indeed: among its lurid ingredients are hidden thumb drives, widespread sexual blackmail, massive corruption, and the coordination of homicide via emoji-laced text messages. As it moves from Kuciak’s murder through the ensuing revelations and their seismic political impact, Sarnecki’s work holds the fascination of a bonafide page-turner.
[A] riveting true crime tale. As an exposé, it’s explosive. As journalism, it’s watertight.”—Pat Mullen, POV Magazine
Media Partner
Denmark
2022
In Slovak and English with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Sinners
2025's unexpected box office sleeper is that rare beast, a genre movie full of bold invention and surprise. We are in Mississippi in the early 1930s, and the opening of a new blues joint on the edge of town is the signal for all hell to break out.
If I Had Legs I'd Kick You
A harried mother (Academy Award nominee Rose Byrne) clings to an unhelpful therapist (Conan O’Brien) as she struggles to cope with her daughter's mysterious illness in Mary Bronstein’s darkly comedic psychological drama.
Islands
In this sly, engrossing mystery, a dissolute English tennis coach in a Canary Islands holiday resort falls under suspicion when the husband of a beautiful guest disappears after a night of heavy drinking...
All That's Left of You
Jordan's submission for the Academy Awards, All That's Left of You makes the most of its epic format to chronicle seven decades of Palestinian history while tracking the psychological impact of cycles of exile and oppression on three generations.
L'Étranger
Recreating 1940s Algeria in vivid, high contrast black and white cinematography, L'Etranger is erotic, enigmatic and brutal in equal measures, a masterful screen version of Albert Camus's insoluble classic of existential alienation.
Credits
Executive Producer
Drew Sullivan, Paul Radu
Producer
Signe Byrge Sørensen
Cinematography
Anna Smoroňová
Editor
Janus Billeskov Jansen
Original Music
Kristian Eidnes Andersen
Director
Matt Sarnecki
Matt Sarnecki is a journalist, producer, and film director at the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. His documentary Killing Pavel (2017), about the murder of investigative journalist Pavel Sheremet, won the Investigative Reporters and Editors Medal in 2017 and the 2018 Documentari, Inchieste, Giornalismi Award in the Investigative Medium category. He spent several years working in television and documentary in New York and has produced and directed series for VICE and Powder.com. Sarnecki has a Master’s degree in Journalism from the University of California, Berkeley, and has lived in Bucharest, Romania since 2013.