Cold and Dark

A group of loggers and their horse embark on a delirious journey to gather firewood deep in the Slovakian mountains.

On the outskirts of a small Slovakian village, a group of loggers clears a forest as their trusty workhorse, Kubo, labours under the weight of the logs. The workers’ day-to-day activities bear witness to a serious energy crisis that, heightened by the war in Ukraine and the dependence on Russian natural gas, makes firewood a precious resource for rural Slovakian communities. Cold and Dark transports us to the bleak landscape of an impoverished region, its black and white palette intensifying the gloom of clouded skies and deep winter nights. With attention to the textures and atmosphere of a world at once arid and magnificent, Peter Hošták takes a nuanced look at the landscape and the people who live there. With a haunting sound composition in which people, nature, and machines become blurred, Cold and Dark reminds us that warmth—whether human or igneous—is the only fuel that can ensure our survival through the winters of our lives.