selected recognition
- Year
- 2024
- Genre
- Feature documentary
- Runtime
- 82 min.
- Countries
- Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland
A young Romani man returns from prison to a fractured family and finds an unexpected way to confront his past — by becoming a fakir.

synopsis
After two years in prison, 23-year-old Dalibor returns home to a family still marked by violence and instability. His younger brother Kevin remains in the care of their abusive, alcoholic father, and Dalibor becomes determined to protect him from the childhood he himself endured. While his family fights for Kevin's custody, Dalibor is also struggling with his own past and searching for a way forward.
He finds refuge in the strange, magical world of a travelling circus, where he learns to breathe fire, lie on beds of nails and transform himself into a fakir. Moving between the harsh reality of life on the margins and the spectacle of the circus, Fakir is an intimate portrait of a young man trying to break a cycle of inherited trauma and create a different future for himself and those he loves.
“What really impressed me about him was his demeanour, a mixture of kindness and childlike naivety contrasted with pretend boyish roughness.”



credits
featuring
DALIBOR LEZO


tech specs
- Slovak title
- Pokiaľ ja žijem
- Czech title
- Fakír
- English title
- Fakir
- Producers
- Bright Sight Pictures, Lonely Production, Lumisenta Film Foundation
- Length
- 82 minutes
- Year of production
- 2024
- Countries of production
- Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland
- Shooting location
- Slovakia
- Languages
- Slovak, Czech, Romani
- Sales / distribution
- Feelsales, Continental Film, Itafilm
- World premiere
- DOK.fest München 2024 / DOK.panorama
