Ostrochovský Plans Sterilization Film Remake on Navajo Land
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- Ivan Ostrochovský's latest film 'Only Beautiful Things to Look At' premieres at Karlovy Vary Film Festival, set in 1980s Czechoslovakia and following a doctor (Aňa Geislerová) who begins questioning forced sterilization of Romani women.
- Ostrochovský is planning a U.S. remake set on Navajo Nation land in New Mexico, adapting the story to a local context where he says approximately 40% of Native American women were subjected to forced sterilization between the 1970s and 1980s and the Native American birth rate declined by an estimated 60%.
- Producer Katarína Tomková has enrolled in the Global Media Makers Residency with Film Independent — focused on U.S. filmmaking business — as the team conducts location scouting and adapts the story; the project is produced by Punkchart Films and Negativ.
- Navajo Nation stakeholders told the filmmakers they 'didn't want to see another film portraying them as victims' and instead wanted to 'meet in the middle and start a dialogue,' a constraint that could reshape the remake's framing.
- Slovakia has issued only one official apology for the forced sterilization of Romani women — which continued into the 2000s — and affected women's court claims for compensation have been rejected by the Slovakian government, per Ostrochovský.
- Ostrochovský says he spoke with doctors responsible for the sterilizations, who told him many genuinely believed they were helping women 'living in really terrible conditions with seven or eight kids' — adding that 'when you have all these logical, rational arguments, you can forget about what's moral.'
- Cinematographer Juraj Chlpík's visual approach draws on nature documentaries — 'macro shots of insects or animals' — to frame the characters' dilemmas as 'a study of human behavior,' with Ostrochovský calling this potentially his most accessible film yet.
Why it matters: The remake reframes forced sterilization from a Czech-Slovak injustice into a transatlantic reckoning — Navajo Nation stakeholders explicitly rejected victim portrayals in favor of dialogue — while in Slovakia the government has issued just one apology and refused compensation despite ongoing court cases from Romani survivors.
