Jan. 20, 2025

The world premieres of Slovenian films at the International Film Festival Rotterdam

From 30 January to 9 February, the 54th International Film Festival in Rotterdam will present the new Slovenian films, including three in the main competition sections: a short film by Gregor Božič, Common Pear, and two minority co-productions, Fiume o morte! by the Croatian director Igor Bezinović and Wind, Talk to Me by the Serbian director Stefan Đorđević.

The selection of the most interesting fourteen films, including the new documentary Fiume o morte! by the Croatian screenwriter and director Igor Bezinović, will be presented in the main feature film competition programme, the Tiger Competition. The unconventional documentary was produced by Restart from Zagreb and co-produced by the Slovenian production studio NOSOROGI, led by the producer and screenwriter Marina Gumzi, with financial support from the Slovenian Film Centre. This year’s winner of the Prešeren Fund Award, the sound designer Julij Zornik, was also involved in the project as a sound mixer.

The film focuses on one of the most bizarre periods in the history of the city of Rijeka (Fiume in Italian): the sixteen-month military occupation carried out 100 years ago by the poet and eccentric army officer Gabriele D’Annunzio, who is still admired in Italy today. Under the direction of Bezinović, who made sure to tackle this historical event based on factual information and an extensive historical archive, the people of Rijeka not only reconstructed the story of the occupation of their city for the film but reinterpreted it creatively through comic, surreal, and even frightening episodes. The production of Fiume o morte! took ten long years, allowing the filmmakers to incorporate some current political events into the film. The parallels between the political dynamics of the first decades of the 20th century and the present, especially in terms of theatricality and political propaganda of the pre-war and present-day politics, thus present themselves in the film.

The versatile Slovenian filmmaker Gregor Božič was in charge of the cinematography for Fiume o morte!. He will also present himself in Rotterdam as the director of Common Pear, another Slovenian film in the competition programme. The short live-action documentary film was also produced by the NOSOROGI studio and co-produced by Digital Orchard, a post-production studio from the UK. The film will be presented in the short film competition programme, along with nineteen other shorts. The screenplay was written by Gregor Božič and Marina Gumzi, who presented themselves to audiences at home and abroad four years ago with their critically acclaimed debut film Stories From the Chestnut Woods. Common Pear, described by Variety as a “climate sci-fi”, is set in the near future, heavily influenced by climate change. A team of Mediterranean scientists uses new technology to analyse the archival footage of fruit growers from the past and investigate what exactly tied people to their trees in ancient times. The film was made with the support of the Slovenian Film Centre, the Municipality of Nova Gorica, the European Capital of Culture – GO!2025, and the Friuli Venezia Giulia Film Commission.

The NOSOROGI production studio stated the following when the programme was announced: “The double premiere in both main competition programmes of one of the world’s biggest film events and the selection of other projects by our Slovenian colleagues represent an incredible success for Slovenian film. Such attention from a festival that has always sought the brightest spark of creativity in films and promoted the contemporary avant-garde while categorically rejecting the divisions of world cinema into the central and peripheral and steadfastly resisting the dictates of the dominant markets and stardom represents a remarkable recognition of our efforts. Both Common Pear and Fiume o morte! were envisioned as creative responses to the immediate surroundings at the point when we are starting to perceive profound social and environmental changes that will likely affect our and future generations. We are convinced this will only make both films more interesting over time. We look forward to presenting them to the Slovenian audience soon after their Rotterdam premieres!”

The Slovenian minority co-production Wind, Talk to Me by the Serbian director Stefan Đorđević was also selected for the Tiger Competition. The film is a Serbian-Slovenian-Croatian co-production. The Slovenian co-producers are Jožko Rutar from SPOK Films and Miha Černec from Staragara, and the film was financially supported in Slovenia by the Slovenian Film Centre. The main producer is Non-Aligned Films from Serbia, the Croatian co-producer is Restart, and the Serbian co-producer is Katunga. The story follows the 34-year-old Stefan, who hits a dog with his car. Guilt-ridden, he decides to take the animal with him to the lake, where he is headed to complete a film about his recently deceased mother. Two Slovenian filmmakers – the director of photography Marko Brdar and the sound designer Julij Zornik – also participated in the creation of this film.

The programme of short and medium-length films includes the experimental film Yellow Dawn by Davorin Marc and the Slovenian minority co-production Upon Sunrise by the Serbian director Stefan Ivančić. Upon Sunrise is a Serbian-Spanish-Slovenian-Croatian co-production, and the Slovenian co-producer is Miha Černec from the Staragara production company. The main producer is Non-Aligned Films from Serbia, while Volta Producción from Spain and Antitalent from Croatia are co-producers. Lyse Nsengiyumva, a selection committee member, wrote the following about the film: “Maria is a single mother living in Serbia where housing is unpredictable, healthcare expensive, and job opportunities are scarce. Desperate to provide for herself and her 6-year-old son, she resorts to petty scams to make ends meet. Stefan Ivančić’s Upon Sunrise offers a poignant glimpse into the everyday struggles of a woman trying her hardest to navigate grave social inequality, with little to no support from the state.”

Ivan Ramljak, a selection committee member, wrote the following about Yellow Dawn: “After 48 years of filmmaking, the legendary Slovenian experimentalist Davorin Marc has his IFFR debut with an archetypal example work from the later part of his career. Rumene zore is a carefully crafted miniature in which he digitally mimics some of the analogue procedures from the past. If Marc’s analogue works from the 80s were post-punk, then the new ones could well be post-film!”

The Festival, which focuses on the most original new works of contemporary independent cinema, also strives to give equal treatment to different world cinemas. It boasts an average of 275,000 visitors per edition, and more than 2,000 experts from over 100 countries visit it every year. The Festival sets future film trends and discovers filmmakers to watch out for in the future.
Source: Slovenian Film Centre

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