D.N.A. Productions
SLOVAKIA
COMPANY PROFILE
D.N.A. has been operating since 2001. Receiving valuable experience in television and commercial production, the company started producing independent arthouse short films (VOICES, DARKROOM), which not only received attention and critical acclaim, but also were successful at the international festival circuit. Since 2007, the company produces artistically challenging feature films and has since established strong relationships with young filmmaking talents, who are willing to cross the borders of genre and explore new narrative structures. With director Peter Bebjak, the company produced APRICOT ISLAND (2011), a melodrama, EVIL (2012), the first Slovak horror and THE CLEANER (2015), a psychological drama, all of which were presented at international film festivals world-wide and received awards.
The TV series THE JUSTICE won in 2018 Czech Lion Awars- The Best Television Film or Miniseries.
Commercial success came with the feature movie The RIFT, released in January 2019. The movie set the box office record - the most theatrical admissions in its first weekend by any Slovak film. A total of almost 270 000 admissions.
The company currently finishes one of the most ambitious Slovak films of recent years - THE AUSCHWITZ REPORT. Slovak - Czech - German coproduction. Theatrical premiere will take place in January 2021.
D.N.A. also has high expectations of forthcoming TV mini series THE ACTOR. Releasing in November 2020.
Rastislav Sestak established D.N.A. together with Peter Bebjak in 2001. Since the beginning, he wanted to support and scout new directorial and scriptwriter talents and to create a strong production platform for them to explore new genres and sub-genres. He has produced a number of popular television series and feature films, mainly directed by Peter Bebjak and Róbert Šveda
Rasto Sestak
COMPANY HIGHLIGHTS
THE RIFT 2019
Format: Feature film
Genre: Mysterious Thriller
Director: Peter Bebjak
Screenplay: Tomáš Bombík , Jozef Karika (novel)
Cast: Matej Marušin, Mary Havranová - Bartalos, Tomáš Maštalír, Dávid Hartl, Juraj Loj
Igor, an unemployed university graduate, discovers the psychiatric assessment reports of Walter Fischer. One day seventy years ago, Fischer disappeared under mysterious circumstances while walking in the Tribec mountains. Two months later, he reappeared under equally mysterious circumstances and had strange wounds and burns all over his body. He was disoriented, could not explain what had happened to him and never recovered. Igor continues his investigation and, to his astonishment, he learns that Fischer’s case was not at all isolated - mentions of mysterious disappearances in the mountains date far back into history. More and more chilling stories keep piling up. Igor, his girlfriend Mia, the conspiracy theorist Andrej and the inveterate sceptic David begin to dig deeper into the mystery and unearth a truth more terrifying than any fantasy. They embark on an expedition to the forests of Tribec, where they witness something that defies human understanding. Their initially innocent quest ends in tragedy. This mystery, as the group find out, has incredibly sharp teeth.
JUSTICE 2017
Format: TV Mini Series 3x75’
Genre: Crime
Director: Peter Bebjak
Screenplay: Tomáš Bombík, Peter Bebjak
Cast: Ondřej Vetchý, Martin Finger, Elizaveta Maximová, Lukáš Vaculík, Aleš Bílík
The miniseries in three parts tells the story of Richard, chief of a criminal police unit. He tries to cover his daughter Lilly who has committed a murder. Bloodstained she comes running to him, confessing that she has killed her lover in self-defence. When Richard learns that the lover was a famous judge, he decides to lie for his daughter; he removes the evidence and buries the body – which is however soon discovered, and the case is assigned for investigation to the very unit under his command. A chase for who will become the scapegoat starts. But gradually it becomes obvious that Lilly´s version of the story is not quite true.
25th CZECH LION 2017 - Best television film or miniseries
THE CLEANER 2015
Format: Film Noir
Genre: Thriller
Director: Peter Bebjak
Screenplay: Peter Bebjak and Peter Gašparík
Cast: Noel Czucor, Rebeka Polaková, Kamil Kollárik
He is lacking social relationships. Observing other lives from behind the closet doors makes him feel safe and quiets down his solitude. Everything changes, when he decides to come out.
Lecce - Best Cinematography
THE ACTOR Autumn 2020
Format: Mini series 3x75’
Genre: Historical / Crime
Director: Peter Bebjak
Screenplay: Petr Bok
Cast: Jan Cina, Jenovéfa Boková, Jan Nedbal, Martin Finger, Emília Vášáryová, Pavel Batek, Adrian Jastraban
Stanislav Láník lives alone with his grandmother and his sister Agnes. His father was killed in the war in the service of the Western Army, and his mother died in prison as a collaborator. Stanislav and Agnes are doomed to survive without a chance for education or better work. Although Stanislav is a talented actor in amateur theatre, he is forced to abandon his acting career, and begins working as a janitor at a university. The Secret Police gives him the task of focusing on the university’s professor of mathematics, whom the regime suspects of collaboration. Stanislav is rewarded with a role in state military theater for his «pro-state» activities. The communist regime demands of compromiting another western collaborator - representative of the czech army. Unfortunatelly Stanislav falls in love with him and it leads him into serious troubles...