TAKE CARE
Paula Maľárová
Slovakia
Soak inside the space where pain meets rest, body meets soul, and time remains still.
SYNOPSIS
Set in an idyllic spa town, the film explores pain as the silent companion of everyday life. Here, pain becomes something that can be read and understood. No longer a weakness. The local staff, who have developed a certain distance from their patients’ suffering, move fluently within this language, quietly teaching us its grammar while revealing the relationship between body and soul. Yet they are also just bodies, subject to time and wear. Together we enter a place where all things, living or not, are bound by the same condition of mortality.
INTENTION
At one point, pain became a regular part of my life. I learnt to ignore it. To accept it. To move through it. I began to see pain as a constant companion, always by my side. The burden was mine, to keep going, to push through. After all, we all hurt in some way, so why should I be any different? In today’s restless world, where we constantly chase performance, goals, and experiences to tick off our mental “bucket list”, we rarely allow ourselves to slow down. To show weakness. To pause and listen to what pain might be trying to tell us. I tried to start a conversation with my body, to build a different relationship, based not on pain but on trust. Searching for someone who could translate what my body was trying to say, I eventually found my way to spa towns. Territories devoted to pain, or rather to its relief, hidden behind a holiday-like façade. Spaces where the body and soul can reconnect, if only for a moment. Through this film, I turn from my own experience towards the people who work with pain every day. Those who have learnt to read the body and understand its quiet language.
DIRECTOR
Paula Maľárová
Paula graduated in documentary film from the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava. Her short film Planet Gelnica won Best Documentary at MIFF Listapad. Her debut Territory of Imagination premiered at Beldocs and won the Jury Prize at Cinematik IFF. She works as a director, script editor, festival juror, and film market matchmaker.
Tereza is a Slovak independent producer and founder of cinepunkt (2021). She produced Territory of Imagination (Beldocs 2023, Cinematik Jury Prize) and Seablindness (DocLisboa & Ji.hlava 2025). She also works as a producer at kerekesfilm with Peter Kerekes and is an alumna of international workshops such as Emerging Producers, EURODOC, and IDFAacademy.
tereza.tokarova@gmail.com
PRODUCER
Tereza Tokárová
Genre
Creative documentary
Length
20 min
Language
Slovak
Shooting location
Slovakia
Production company
cinepunkt (Slovakia)
Estimated budget
€ 44.490
Secured funding
Slovak Audiovisual Fund - € 15.000, cinepunkt’s own investment - € 3.000
Looking for
Coproducers, Additional Funding, Sales, Distribution, Festivals