The Other Slovakia - Andrej Bán

Working as a journalist, I have come to understand that what goes on behind the scenes is very often more interesting than the “main stage” of events. I mean the involuntary gestures, the ambiguous situations perhaps hard to understand, which I am convinced reveal at certain moments something spontaneous and inimitable. What interests me most is authentic life, the rituals and customs of ordinary people who seem to be living “against the flow of time”. I am intimately acquainted with Slovakia, especially its more remote parts. I am interested in the Slovakia that will disappear, which is not able and maybe does not even want to come to terms with “the new age”. This apparent constraint of a country in the process of transformation is no more than camouflage for difficult inner dramas. That is one reason why I have written only one sentence in my book The Other Slovakia: Maybe you will not find such a country on any map.