33 Steps

Thirteen years after Milan Daniel suffered severe head injuries in a racially motivated attack, his assailant is set to be released. What does such a moment evoke in a traumatized man who, though he survived his own death, will forever bear the consequences of that fateful day? Šimon and Anna Domček’s feature-length debut, straddling the line between documentary and fiction, is an unprecedentedly cohesive mosaic of fragments of everyday reality, memories, dreams, and subjective imaginings. It not only explores the experience of a man trying to break free from the shadows of the past—shadows that weigh heavily even on future generations—but also addresses the topic of racial intolerance in an unusual way.