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Video Gaja Madžarevič

In time-honoured tradition, the 26^th Ljubljana International Film Festival opened with a bang last night. The spectacular opening ceremony included a short black-and-white movie featuring the Festival Director, Simon Popek, and Jonas Žnidaršič, a Slovenian actor impersonating George the Adventurer, in the lead roles. Popek tried and failed to inspire enthusiasm in his rough interlocutor for Filipino cinema, “a seven-and-a-half-hour film, done in black-and-white, few dialogues, almost no action”, and then the Adventurer shed his assumed role and turned into the Jonas we all know so well. Among the numerous amusing anecdotes Jonas shared about Slovenian celebrities, especially memorable was the one aimed at satirising the Slovenian cinema. He thus commented a Slovenian film whose premiere he attended, “I must confess that the film dragged somewhat at the beginning, but then… it stopped altogether.”

The fully packed Linhart Hall was addressed by Simon Popek, who welcomed the director of the opening film, Olmo Omerzu, and members of the film crew: producer Jiří Konečný, co-producer Boštjan Ikovic, costume designer Marjetka Kürner Kalous and co-scriptwriter Nebojša Pop Tasić. Family Film, Omerzu’s second feature film, received its Slovenian premiere last night within the scope of the Ljubljana Film Festival. The director and screenwriter Omerzu, who was greeted by a rapturous applause, explained that in writing the script he was prompted by a news item about a wedded couple, shipwreck survivors, who learned after two weeks that their dog was alive and well on an isolated island. When searching for a writer who’d finish the script, he came across Nebojša Pop Tasić, “I Googled Nebojša.” Pop Tasić, who at the time also worked with director Matjaž Ivanišin, remembers the collaboration as a hectic and feverish one. He also revealed some insightful information and then commented, “I know you’re all eagerly waiting to see the film, but you’ll have to wait some more – I had to wait two years!”

After the screening, the cinema-goers enjoyed the intimate atmosphere in CD’s Foyer II, indulging in imaginatively arranged refreshments. Some of the familiar faces we spotted were the Director General of Cankarjev dom, Uršula Cetinski, the legendary filmmaker Karpo Godina, film buff Zdenko Vrdlovec, TV host Mišo Molk, singer Vlado Kreslin, and the Animateka Festival Director, Igor Prassel. On a tight schedule and shortly returning to Prague, Olmo Omerzu will be available for questions after the screening of Family Film in CD’s Kosovel Hall, to commence tonight at 7.30pm.

Written by Andraž Jež

Photo Iztok Dimc

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