Seven Slovenian Films at the Bradford Festival
The program was put together by the British film publicist Neil Young, who has been an expert on the Slovenian film production, its films and authors for the last couple of years. He took an interest in the Slovenian film in 2001, after seeing Bread and Milk by Jan Cvitkovič.
The presentation of Slovenian films at the festival in Bradford is the first retrospective in the international arena, combining the professional and guerrilla film production, which makes it particularly interesting. From the guerrilla production Neil Young chose three films: the film with the largest number of viewers in the last year Here and There by Mitja Okorn; Boys Like Sexy Legs, Girls Like Ice Cream by Matej Ocepek, quite an unknown film in Slovenia, even among the connoisseurs of guerrilla production; and Eyes Full of Water by Jože Baša, which won the audience award and the script award at the last Festival of Slovenian Film in Portorož.
Bullets Miss the Fool by Mitja Novljan could be classified as halfway between guerrilla and professional production; it was created in a guerrilla manner, but the Slovenian Film Fund allocated it the funds for the transfer to 35mm. Before this film, Vlado Škafar's documentary film Peterka: the Year of Decision had a similar fate. Gravehopping by Jan Cvitkovič and Suburbs by Vinko Möderndorfer were made in accordance with the official procedure from the beginning to the end.
All of the films are accompanied by interesting reviews, where the writers (Frank Mangus, Neil Young) make enviable comparisons; and we especially recommend reading these to all the people who still believe that the Slovenian film has not yet been put on the world film map. Mangus compares Suburbs to the work of Gaspar Noé and Coen brothers, the young Jože Baša with "Bresson who met Good Will Hunting", and writes about the influences of Werner Herzog on Vlado Škafar.
For this year we announce a retrospective in the Polish city of Katowice, in Budapest, and elsewhere.
http://www.nmpft.org.uk/bff/2006/filmdetail.asp?ida=6019