Nové Heřminovy sits alongside the Opava River in the northeast corner of Czech Republic. The first settlers arrived more than 700 years ago, and the 250 people who live there cling tightly to history and tradition. But the village will change forever in a few years when the government dams the river and inundates the valley, a fate that hangs over residents like a cloud.

"You can really feel something surreal and absurd in the air there," says Imrich Veber. "It seems to me like a film stage where no one knows the script or what is going on."

Veber lives not far from Nové Heřminovy, and passed the village each day while attending the local university. Two years ago he decided to chronicle the town before it was lost forever. "This will change nature, landscape and people," he says. "That’s fascinating to me."

The government contemplated damming the Opava River for nearly a century but didn't do much more than talk about it until 2008, when it announced a flood prevention project that included a $25 billion hydroelectric dam. The reservoir will submerge some 50 buildings. Locals tried everything they could think of to stop the plan, including refusing to sell their land, to no avail. Construction is slated to start in 2020.

Veber spent a day or two each week photographing people going about their lives. Most didn’t talk about the dam, but he saw first-hand how it divided those willing to take a buyout from Povodi Odry, the company managing the project, and those who resist it. "You can feel this stress," Veber says.

The bright, colorful photos in NH20 capture the small moments that make Nové Heřminovy so special to those eager to stay. A family slaughters a pig in preparation for winter. Majorettes line up for a dance routine at a village celebration. And children cool off in a nearby creek, knowing their way of life will vanish.