The Time of Crisis at the 20th Anniversary of the Slovenian Film Centre

12. March 2015
The Film Fund of the Republic of Slovenia was founded in 1995 and renamed as the Slovenian Film Centre in 2010. The celebration of its 20th anniversary started in January at the Trieste Film Festival, but in Slovenia the festivities will begin in the Slovenian Cinematheque. The honour of the first solemn screening will go to The Time of Crisis (1981), the first film by the director Franci Slak. This occasion will be the first opportunity to see it in the digitised and restored version.

Simultaneously this is the first Slovenian version of the film after thirty years, since until recently Slovenia only had a 35mm copy with German subtitles. The digitised version was financed by the Slovenian Film Archive of the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia with the partial assistance of the Slovenian Film Centre.

The Time of Crisis is Slak's debut, which went down in the film history as a "minimalist drama and one of the best first films of the Slovenian cinematography". Starring Roberto Battelli, who later affirmed himself in politics, the film received the Award for Best Film of the Year at the 9th Slovenian Film Week in Celje, while Franci Slak received the Silver Metod Badjura Prize and Diploma.

The film follows Pavel Komel, a psychology student who faces a personal crisis as he can no longer find the true meaning in his studies and life in the capital. He wishes for a different life, but does not know how to achieve it. His romantic relationship does not fulfil him, and after working part time for a while he decides to return to his home town. There he tries to present his rather hazy plans to his parents, but stumbles upon a complete lack of understanding. Ultimately the empty television screen is the only thing that is left for him.

Franci Slak is the only Slovenian director whose films have qualified for the Berlin Film Festival three times. Already his debut, The Time of Crisis, qualified for the Forum Programme of this festival in 1982. At that time Slak's film – according to Bojan Kavčič, the Berlin correspondent of the Ekran magazine (Ekran No. 1,2-1982) – was the only official Yugoslav representative at the Berlinale. Bojan Kavčič also wrote that the film "...was very well received by the audience. This was also evident from a full theatre during the screening as well as from the considerable interest in the discussion with the director after the screening."Kavčič also remembers the reception that the film had in Slovenia and writes: "If we take everything into account, we can safely say that The Time of Crisis represented us at the Berlin Festival far more successfully than it could be 'expected' on the basis of the indifference towards this film in its national cultural space."

The Slovenian (or at that time Yugoslav) star of the Berlin Festival was born, and the Berlin selectors followed Slak's development carefully. Two years later his next film Eva (1984) qualified for the Panorama Programme of the Berlin Festival. As the big festivals never forget their discoveries, in 1988 Franci Slak saw his best qualification when his film The Felons was selected for the competition programme.

The screening of The Time of Crisis will take place on Tuesday, 17 March, at 7 p.m. It will be followed by the discussion where a part of the creative team will be presented.

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