Lahola / ISR / film

Lahola / directed by: Dalia Karpel / 2001 / 57 min.

The legendary film which was discussed by many, but seen by few. In Slovakia, Lahola is recognized as a playwright and short story writer, but he was also a poet, script writer and director who made his films in Israel, France, Germany and former Yugoslavia. As a director, he participated in the wave of spaghetti western movies and was also to take on directing Old Shatterhand starring Lex Barker. Lahola (Leopold Arje Friedmann) was born in Prešov in 1918. For racial reasons, he was banned to complete his studies at the Faculty of Arts, Comenius University in Bratislava. He found himself in the Novaky concentration camp and fought in the Slovak National Uprising. After WW II, he wrote drama. He applied for a permission to settle in Israel, but later left for Germany, working as a screenwriter and director. In the mid 1960s he returned to Slovakia where he unexpectedly died in 1968 while shooting his film, The Sweet Time.