The movie

Perla

Perla, a gifted painter with an equally talented musician daughter, is living comfortably in early 1980s Vienna when she receives a call that rejuvenates ghosts from her past in communist Czechoslovakia, and she must risk everything in order to move on with her life.

Length: 108 min
Country: Oostenrijk, Slowakije
Language spoken: Duits, Slowaaks, Russisch
Language subtitles: Nederlands
Cast: Noël Czuczor, Rebeka Poláková, Simon Schwarz
Director: Alexandra Makarová
Release date: 2025-06-19

Description

Perla, a gifted painter with an equally talented musician daughter, is living comfortably in early 1980s Vienna when she receives a call that rejuvenates ghosts from her past in communist Czechoslovakia, and she must risk everything in order to move on with her life. In early 1980s Vienna, an artist and single mother, Perla rebuilt her life with her daughter, Julia, and her partner, Josef, a Tibetologist. Living in exile, she has tried to leave behind the traumas of her youth in communist Czechoslovakia. But when Julia’s father, Andrej, contacts her unexpectedly to say he is gravely ill, Perla risks crossing the border back into her homeland. Pulled between past and present, she begins to make reckless choices that jeopardise her freedom and strain her relationship with Julia. Alexandra Makarová’s Perla is a quietly powerful portrait of identity and resilience, set against the tensions of the Cold War. Through its classically structured narrative, the film reveals the emotional cost of navigating patriarchal systems and the lingering violence of totalitarian rule.