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DAY 6
Sunday 13 May 2018

UPCOMING PRODUCTIONS
+ PRODUCERS TO WATCH

are looking for festival placement for their world premieres.
Lastly, Let Him Be a Basketball Player (Gustav Film) by CONSEQUENCES
Boris Petković, has in 2017 made the top-five of the most
successful box-office films in Slovenia. The film is based Director: Darko Štante • Cast: Matej Zemljič, Timon
on an immensely popular young adult novel of the same Šturbej, Gašper Markun, Lovro Zafred, Lea Cok •
title by Primož Suhadolčan, who also wrote the screenplay. Production: Temporama (Jerca Jerič & Andraž Jerič)
International rights for the film are available. Because of his diffi cult behaviour, the 18-year-old
Andrej is sent to a youth education centre. There
SLOVENIA GOES GLOBAL he meets Željko, the informal leader of the local
Last year’s production also saw a lot of first features being boarders. When Željko uncovers Andrej’s secret,
© DR made, and among the films quite a few are directed and he soon starts taking advantage of him. Andrej
A picturesque vista looking out to the Mediterranean written by female film-makers, such as the comedy feature thus faces a trial of responsibility and preservation
film My Last Year as a Loser (Vertigo) by Urša Menart, and of his moral integrity. He has to decide whether
to attract international film and TV shoots to the territory the documentaries Avenge (Vertigo) by Marija Zidar and to remain loyal to himself or join Željko and his
might be how easy and cost-effective the small country is How Much Do You Love Yourself? (Sever & Sever) by Nina thrilling way of life.
to get around. Slovenia, known as ‘Europe in a nutshell’, Blažin. But most of all, 2017 has been successful for
includes four geographic and climate regions within a Slovenian film abroad. The observational documentary
90-minute drive. It offers diverse geographical backdrops The Family by Rok Biček (Class Enemy), produced by HISTORY OF LOVE
including Alpine peaks, Mediterranean-style coastlines, Cvinger Film (Slovenia/Austria), has world-premiered in
meadows, hills, pine forests, lakes, rivers, beaches, castles Locarno, where it won the main award in Semaine de la Director: Sonja Prosenc • Cast: Doroteja Nadrah,
and palaces — and even caves. Cityscapes, on the other Critique of CHF8,000, and garnered overwhelmingly Kristoffer Joner • Production: Monoo (Rok Sečen, Sonja
hand, are known for picturesque old buildings including positive critics reviews. Another documentary, Playing Prosenc)
castles, town halls and cathedrals, like Ljubljana’s, as well Men by Matjaž Ivanišin (produced by Nosorogi), won the While Eva is mourning the loss of her mother who
as other coastal and medieval towns dotted around the Georges de Beauregard Prize in Marseille and the Ciné+ has died in an accident, she discovers her mother’s
country. Slovenia has been awarded the Global Green Distribution Support Award of €15,000 at the Entrevues secret relationship with a co-worker, opera
Destination title and has won the National Geographic Belfort festival in France. The fiction film by Hanna W. conductor Erik. Iva’s idea of family starts to fall
Legacy Award for sustainable tourism destination Slak, The Miner (Nukleus Film), has been awarded in apart. This gives her an opportunity to escape pain,
management. Warsaw, while Ivan (Staragara) by Janez Burger won at but she chooses anger instead. She plunges into a
As for local production, the number of feature-length films LET’S CEE in Vienna, in addition to being distributed to world completely different from the one she is used
produced, both fiction and documentary, grows bigger territories as diverse as China, Serbia and Croatia. to, but after the initial disappointment and feelings
every year: from 16 in 2015 to 20 and 21 in 2016 and Meanwhile, Men Don’t Cry (Deblokada Production, of betrayal she realises Erik is someone she can
2017, respectively. Slovenians are coming to the Marché Bosnia and Herzegovina/Slovenia/Germany/ Croatia), share her loss with. At this point Iva’s brother takes
with four titles this year. The first, History of Love, is the a fiction film by the Bosnian director and screenwriter the anger and revenge onto himself.
first ever Slovenian-Italian-Norwegian co-production, Alen Drljević, has been awarded nine times, including
directed by Sonja Prosenc (The Tree), which after receiving festivals in Karlovy Vary, Sarajevo, Göteborg, among
© FRANC FERJAN funding from Slovenia and MEDIA, got the RE-ACT others, as well as being the Bosnian candidate for a foreign- STORIES FROM THE CHESTNUT WOODS
language Oscar.
Co-Development Funding Scheme award, and in March
The future is looking bright too. In December, two
Director: Gregor Božič • Cast: Massimo de Francovich,
won financing from the Zefyr Media Fund Stavanger in
Norway. Two exciting newcomers are also being presented: upcoming Slovenian productions won support from Ivana Roščić, Giusi Merli, Tomi Janežič • Production:
Stories from the Chestnut Woods (Nosorogi, Slovenia/Italy) Eurimages. Let’s Be Frank (Vertigo production), by the Nosorogi (Marina Gumzi)
by Gregor Božič, which won the This Is IT Laser Film director and screenwriter Metod Pevec, about two brothers Somewhere in a far-off region, in a forested valley
Award at When East Meets West 2018. The second is an from opposing halves of the divided Slovenian society, won between two countries, lived two old people,
exciting first feature produced by Temporama, a film €200,000; while a minority co-production with Italy, How husband and a wife. The old woman fell sick and
society established in 2012 aimed at encouraging young Things Fall by Katja Colja (produced by Casablanca), won died, and the old man, a stingy coffi n maker, found
film-makers, Consequences by Darko Štante. All three films €215,000. ✦ himself all alone in the world. Pondering the life
he had lived, he meets Marta, a local chestnut seller,
who desperately wants to leave the valley.
A chance encounter gives rise to a dreamy parable
FILM LOCATIONS IN SLOVENIA on loneliness and the power of imagination.

Everything is nearby in the only European country where the Alps, the Mediterranean, LET HIM BE A BASKETBALL PLAYER
the Karst and the Pannonian Plain meet. It is only up to a two-hour drive from
the capital and Central Slovenia to even the most remote corners of the country. Director: Boris Petković • Cast: Klemen Kostrevc, Matija
This means that you can experience four different worlds in a single day. David Brodnik, Gaja Filač, Marko Miladinović, Lado
Bizovičar, Ana Maria Mitić, Matjaž Javšnik, Gojmir
ALPINE SLOVENIA. Filming among the THERMAL PANNONIAN SLOVENIA. Filming Lešnjak • Production: Gustav Film
highest mountains and the wildest waters. between thermal spas and wine-growing hills Let Him Be a Basketball Player tells the story of
Trails take you across the Julian Alps, the makes you feel good. This land, with numerous a young and clumsy boy named Ranta — so big
Kamnik Savinja Alps and the Pohorje Hills to castles, tells authentic stories and inspires that he could be tying ties on giraffes — whose
the rivers, lakes and waterfalls. through amazing scenery. life turns upside down when his gym teacher one
day invites him to join the basketball team.
MEDITERRANEAN & KARST SLOVENIA. BLJANA & CENTRAL SLOVENIA. The This marks the beginning of an exciting path
Film locations in this Slovenian region will take capital expresses a thousand faces of urban full of unpredictable adventures in which Ranta
you from salt pans to Karst caves, from culture and art. UNESCO world heritage, green is always accompanied by his funny friend Smodlak.
picturesque towns and the Adriatic Sea to the rural areas and even primeval forests are only
green rural areas of mystical Istrian villages. minutes away, but totally different scenarios.

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