DANAE Production - life in illumination -
In 2020 Veronika Paštéková with Michal Čerňanský founded DANAE Production, a film production company with the main objective to develop and produce fiction and documentaries for national and international markets and audiences.
DANAE Production focuses its creative and production interest on powerful, profound, and ambiguous stories. The stories that disrupt the status quo. The stories that shout, cry, laugh… The stories that bring hope. The stories to which you will return to.
The guarantee of quality we consider to be crucial, and international coproduction we find inevitable.
Veronika Paštéková – producer, founder, and owner of DANAE Production
Veronika Paštéková is a graduate of Production dep. of the Film and Television Faculty at the Academy of Performing Arts (VŠMÚ) in Bratislava, Slovakia. She worked in the Central European House of Photography as production manager responsible for co-organizing the Month of Photography festival and pitching forum Portfolio review. She has been cooperating with many production companies in Slovakia, Czech republic, Germany and Netherlands in the production department and as the development scout and manager, she has created distribution strategies and coordinated festival traffic for different films.
Filmography:
THE AUSCHWITZ REPORT, director Peter Bebjak, 2021 (SK/CZ/PL) – delegate producer for Development
DEZO HOFFMANN – PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE BEATLES, director Patrik Lančarič, 2022, (SK/CZ) – head of international archive research
Michal Čerňanský – producer / executive
Michal is an erudite lawyer and a specialist in contracts and commercial law.
DANAE Production’s debut The Father demonstrates the fundamental focus of our creative and production interest – powerful, profound and ambiguous stories.
Characteristics:
A single tragic mistake shatters the life of a devoted father, pushing his marriage and his will to live to the brink. As he faces a long prison sentence, he begins to realize that his failure may be rooted deep in the architecture of the human mind. Told with raw intimacy and psychological precision, Father is a gripping portrait of love, shame, and the quiet struggle to forgive the unforgivable.
Inspired by real events
Director: Tereza Nvotová
Story: Dušan Budzak, Tereza Nvotová,
Script: Tereza Nvotová, Dušan Budzak
Cinematography: Adam Suzin
Editing: Nikodem Chabior
Music / Original Score: Pjoni
Production Design: Nina Feriancová
Costume Design: Aneta Grňáková
Sound: Marek Hart, Ivan Horák
Special Effects: Michal Křeček
Executive producer: Barbara Vidlička Vrťová
Cast
Milan Ondrík – Michal
Dominika Morávková – Zuzka
Dominika Zajcz – Dominika
Martina Sľúková – Dáša
Aňa Geislerová – Eva
Peter Ondrejička – Juro
Peter Bebjak - Lawyer
Ingrid Timková - Prosecutor
Roman Polák - Judge
Distributor: Cinemart for Slovakia and the Czech Republic
Producers:
Veronika Paštéková, Anton Skreko
Karel Chvojka, Miloš Lochman
Marta Gmosińska, Mariusz Włodarski
Production Companies:
DANAE Production SK
moloko film, CZ
Lava Films PL
Co-producers and funds
Co-producers: Česká televize, TV JOJ
In collaboration with Magic Lab
Supported by: Slovak Audiovisual Fund, Czech Film Fund, Polish Film Institute
Partners: Citroën, STRABAG
Places of Shooting: Slovakia
Length: 103 min.
Language versions: Slovak / English and Polish subtitles
Shooting started in June 2023. Released in September 2025.
The Father has been selected for When East Meets West (IT, 2020), Baltic Event (EE, 2021) and Sofia Meetings (BG, 2022).
On May 18, 2024, "The Father" was featured at Cannes as one of the five projects in the Marché du Film's Works in Progress.
Winner of the SCREEN INTERNATIONAL AWARD at the C EU Soon work-in-progress at MIA MARKET (2024)
The jury expressed the following motivation: “The director had the courage to face the darkness of the world with empathy, demonstrating a deep understanding of human storytelling. The cinematic language combined emotional intensity with nuanced character portrayal, while displaying great technical mastery of the craft.”
The Screen International Award consists of special press coverage by Screen International for the winning title.
82nd Venice International Film Festival, Horizons section
Characteristics:
"Dilemma" aims to captivate audiences with its starting puzzle, hidden under the neutral label of "consensual sex." The solution to a practical life situation is not approached by trained experts but by those who unexpectedly find themselves in it.
Slovakia faces conservative attitudes, including the removal of contraception from school curriculum and ongoing debates about women´s autonomy. Our Slovak society is not yet as proficient in this topic, and we believe that a film on this subject would educate people on how non-consensual sex can look like. It is not just about brutal and violent rape by a stranger, but also about taking advantage of a situation when a person is unable to give consent or is afraid to say no.
Screenplay: Hana Lasicová, Jozef Paštéka
Director: Jonáš Karásek
Places of Shooting: Slovakia
Length: 90 min.
Language versions: Slovak / Czech
Co-producers: Radio and television of Slovakia
Shooting: 2026
Inspired by real events
Characteristics:
Ľubica is a young woman who, on one hand, tries to prevent an apocalypse and, on the other hand, deals with the loss of her father. We live in an age of internet, conspiracy theories, fake news and unchecked sources. Our film will be visually captivating and hyperbolized satire of this era, combining science fiction elements and dark humour.
Screenplay: Džian Baban, Vojtěch Mašek
Director: Michal Kollár
Places of Shooting: Slovakia
Length: 100 min.
Language versions: Slovak / Czech
Co-producers: MasterFilm (CZ)
Shooting: 2026
Inspired by real life
Abracadabra is a magical fairy-tale comedy about an underachieving wizard who must confront his own conscience and fix the mess he's made. By helping two young people whose differences hide a deeper connection, he learns the strongest magic lies not in spells, but in selfless courage.
Director: Tomáš Jančo
Screenplay: Hana Lasicová
Script editors STVR: Veronika Gregušová, Jana Kákošová
Director of photography: Matej Šomrák, Michal Skotnický
Architect: Tomáš Berka
Costume designer: Ivana Struhárová
Make-up artist: Zuzana Peschlová
Music: Michal Pelant
Executive producer: Barbara Vidlička Vrťová
Places of Shooting: Slovakia
Length: 95 min.
Language versions: Slovak
Co-producers: Slovak Radio and Television, DANAE Production and Czech Television
