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Peter Sloan's long-surpressed Slovak cinema gem One winter’s night in a Slovak mountain resort, customers gather in a nightclub seeking laughter, flirtation and fun. As the alcohol flows the evening unfolds in unpredictable ways, revealed through snatches of conversation and often absurd encounters. Using improvisation and multi-camera shooting, the film achieves a remarkable intimacy. But under its charming surface, it offers a sharp critique of life under communism, as the characters gradually reveal their unfulfilled dreams, insecurities and disappointments. Long suppressed, Before Tonight is Over is now regarded as one of the undiscovered gems of Slovak cinema.

Before Tonight Is Over (1966)
89 min
Two female clerks using up their savings to enjoy a few days of carefree life, two plumbers looking for an erotic adventure, a building contractor determined to drink away all wages of his workers and a former major who became an alcoholic due to political persecution — these people meet in a ski resort bar somewhere in the High Tatras. During one night they gradually reveal their unfulfilled dreams, illusions and disappointments of ”average" people of those times.