Mária Dutková

Maria is a trained gym teacher and she was awarded as the organiser of the HoryZonta Film Festival. She invited us in. Our attention was constantly distracted by new and new details of the originally decorated garden. In addition to flowers, greenery and vegetables, it was dominated by all kinds of antiquities and literally unnecessary junk, which, thanks to the hands of the locals, worked as perfect garden decorations.

I don’t like throwing things away, they get a second chance to live here in the garden, the housewife explains.

We are impressed by the reflection of the sun in an old cask with a rusty chain, small maks in a jar, old meat grinders guarding the garden and also the water lilies on a pool covered with mesh. But this artistic-protection detail is responsible for a heron that has caught ten ornamental fish for three days.

Mary and her husband are enthusiastic mountaineers, and they move around in a circle of travelers and researchers throughout their lives. At one time, it was not entirely common to view films and share their adventures publicly, so they did so in private meetings. They looked at slides, talked about experiences, and came up with the idea of making these experiences available to the wider public. The first year of the festival was very successful.

Maybe at the time there was no excess pressure of similar events and we sold out the Metro cinema with a capacity of one hundred and sixty cities, and Mary mentioned it. This year, in November, the Festival of HoryZonty will enter its third decade of existence in order to promote a healthier lifestyle, an active way of leisure, especially outdoor sports, as well as ecological themes and humanist values. Every year he reaches 4,500 spectators.