‘Queerguru reviews ‘THE CHAMBERMAID a Slovakian sappho period-romance

According to WIKI, The Chambermaid will only be the 4th ever Slovakian queer movie making it more of curiosity than other new films right now. Why so few so far is a mystery especially when you consider that there is a Slovak Queer Film Festival that wll be celebrating its 19th Anniversary this year 

Anyway, in this period costume drama, just before World War 1, 15-year-old Anka (Dana Droppová) swaps life in a small Slovak town to become a maid for a woathy family and is assigned to look after the young daughter of the house, Resi (Radka Caldová).  Initially, the relationship between the two is some sort of power struggle, with Resi humiliating Anka by forcing her to strip for entertainment. Strangely enough, this unbalanced relationship develops into something intimate between these two young women, even though Resi is due to be married off. It’s after the wedding  and the birth of a baby that things get a tad melodramatic and start to unravel and get out of control 

Anka tries to seek. more control of the situation by combining her role of both maid and lover with that of nursery maid too,  but she always comes up against the power dynamic of the household, which will never be in her favour. The moments of intimacy, the two manage to grab together, play out against an intent to harm both the husband and the new baby.  This is a woman’s story in a man’s world, which is heavily weighted against them