The Slovenian documentary film, “Otroci”(Children) with the English title “Letter to a Child” - was presented for the first time in Australia at the Melbourne International Film Festival 2009 on Sunday, 2 August. Director of the festival, Richard Moore had chosen it from the program at this year's Rotterdam Film Festival.

The film viewing took place in Melbourne CBD at the cinema complex Greater Union Cinema, together with other selected films. The tickets were sold out, and many were turned away. I was glad that we had booked in advance via the internet. It was a rare opportunity to see a Slovenian film in the Festival after nine years, since we were fortunate to have seen “In Neutral/ V leru” by Janez Burger in 2000.

It has been described as “Melancholy quest by the maker for himself and the essence of life in unambiguous ode to the beauty of love.” Its director Vlado Škafar is described as an excellent interviewer, “who persuades young and old to reveal the most beautiful stories and statements”.(IFFR)

However I agree completely with the incisive description of the film critic Olaf Moeller:
“Man’s way through life from childhood to old age as a series of monologues provoked from kids, teenagers, young parents, and elderly couple who have lost both their son and daughter, a new-found couple of retirees, an almost senile man. A humble AV- gift of often radical artlessness, concerned solely with the freedom of narrators, their silences as much as their insights, hopes, fears, dreams, a bridge made of experiences spanning from the 21st century to the 19th and back, a national poem remembered, cited in images and sounds, a piece of cinema created as a possibility to confront oneself, in all that a monument to an innocence lost but imaginable.
Olaf Moller’s comment (Film Comment, Top 10 films of 2008)

I found the film, with the Slovenian title Otroci (Children) unexpected, astonishing, engaging and moving - a documentary film of rare depth and beauty. Over the course of the film it was at times poetical, engaging, sometimes profound and in a few cases heartbreakingly tragic - covering a full range of human experience.

The film maker Vlado Škafar presents as his protagonists, children, groups of adolescents, boys and girls, lonely individuals, couples in love, married couples, a couple who have tragically lost both their children. At the very last, a very old man, who had left his life behind and is calmly awaiting its end. The film is about the cycle of life and the manner people live their life from beginning to end. It is about the fundamental issues of life, as it is lived and experienced by human beings, each in his or her own unique way, along the stages of life.

Both the beginning of the film, and its end are poetical. Particularly the softly spoken verses of the beginning about the snowdrop, as the metaphor for beginning life, and the first scene of young mother with the newborn child at the breast are incredibly moving, powerful images of life’s beginning. From there the director takes us to the world of children and their games. The camera moves from face to face, from response to response, some outspoken and lively, others quiet and distanced. It is a happy, joyful scene, viewer can participate in the world of innocence and beginnings of exploration of what life will bring.

The creator stays invisible behind the camera, prompting gently with the next question, when the protagonist appears to run out of words, or there is a need to expand. The protagonists speak of life’s experiences, that had marked their lives - about childhood, relationships, loss, suffering, traumatic events.

The focus is on children. The children in their innocence, the children as they are growing up, when they are adults and have children themselves, and about memories of childhood. It is a kind of a documentary of human life, in its diversity and ever changing continuity of its various stages. It is also about solving the problems that life brings and finding solutions. Even the most tragic loss can be surmounted and woven into a thread, that forms a pattern of life along the way.

The film concludes with a very old man, at the close of life. He remembers nothing of his long life or the people who had shared it. The one thing that has reality for him is the sonnet Memento mori (remember that you will die), by the Slovenian poet France Prešeren, and he begins haltingly to recite the profound verses of life’s ending. When he loses his way, the man behind the camera recites for him and with him, to finish the poem. Very, very moving. I still see the look of wonder on the old man’s face as he hears the verses.

The great value of this film as a documentary seems to me also, that it is presented in the original language. The characters articulate their thoughts and experiences in their own unique way, in their own manner of speaking and with the sound of regional speech patterns. Their own language and expression thus provides immediacy of communication and authenticity.
A wonderful and in many ways timeless film for our times, with a message of life and hope.

Aleksandra L. Ceferin

3 August 2009


Film Otroci je bil avstralski publiki predstavljen v nedeljo ob 12.15, v melbournskem kino centru Greater Union Cinema, Russell Street. Vse vstopnice za eno največjih kino dvoran v Melbournu so bile razprodane pol ure pred začetkom programa. Nekaj tega je pripisati predstavitvi v optimalnem času za zimsko sezono, nekaj pa tudi organizatorjem programov in njihovi pozitivni oceni slovenskega filma. Poleg reklame in programov za Melbourne International Film Festival 2009, smo film oglaševali na Thezaurus Forumih in je to oznanilo prebralo v nekaj dneh nad 500 naših bralcev. Na predstavitvi filma Otroci se je zbrala skupina kakih trideset Slovencev, po vsej verjetnosti pa je bilo število Slovencev v dvorani še večje. Vsem, ki sem jih pozneje vprašala, je bil film všeč. Več jih je še dodalo, da tega po pretekli izkušnji s slovenskimi filmi niso pričakovali. Rekli so: lep film, dober film, končno spet nekaj lepega iz Slovenije. Ni dvoma, da obstaja za slovenske filme v Melbournu zainteresirana javnost - tako slovenska izseljenska kot tudi publika potomcev izseljencev, pa tudi širša avstralska javnost, ki jo je začel zanimati kulturni fenomen Slovenije.

Končno - slovenski film v Melbournu

Film je izreden - kot dokumentarec in film. Takoj v začetku me je prevzel filmski uvod, s poetično metaforo o zvončku in s prizorom doječe matere. S temi stihi je ustvarjalec nastavil globino in širino tematike za vse, kar so posamezni protagonisti imeli povedati pozneje o njihovem življenju in doživljanju. Začetni prizori z otroci so bili izredni, prisrčni, pristni - očarljivi. Z najstniki je izpraševalec z diskretnimi in rahlo vodenimi vprašanji segel v njihov svet in ga tako predstavil gledalcu. In kaj smo vse lahko odkrili pri teh doraščajočih mladih ljudeh! Izpraševalec jim je dal priložnost intimne izpovedi, in tako ustvaril vpogled v njihovo življenje in doživljanje, probleme in tudi traume. Vlado Škafar je predstavil film, v katerem je neposredno, skozi ljudi - od otroka do starca posredoval skozi pogovore ali bolje rečeno samogovore, kako gledajo na osrednja vprašanja življenja: rojstvo, smrt, izguba, odnosi med prijatelji, med starši in otroci, otrok v doživljanju staršev, ljubezen. Pokazal je raznolikost v premišljevanju posameznikov o teh stvareh in obenem skupno človekovo doživljanje vsega kar je človeško. Misli in doživljanje starejših ljudi in tragičnega v življenju, je odkrivanje človekove notranjosti na izredno preprost, in učinkovit način. Izraženo zdaj preprosto ali zdaj bolj kompleksno, je doživljanje v vseh primerih pristno, globoko - nekajkrat celo pretresljivo. Pomembno je tudi, kako iz pripovedovanja izluščimo, kako vsak človek najde v samem sebi in v celoti svojega življenja rešitve, ki mu življenje vedno znova osmislijo.

Film tudi šokira. Ustvarjalec prikazuje življenje v celoti - od svetlih, srečnih trenutkov, do traumatičnih dogodkov in osebne tragedije - izguba matere, izguba staršev, izguba otrok, izguba doma in prav nazadnje še - skrajna starost. Kaj je ostalo v življenju starca, ki mu ni ostalo od življenja nič več kakor le zavest, da ga samo še čaka smrt? Sam tega ni mogel izraziti. Za njega je to izrazil sonet Memento mori Franceta Prešerna, ki ga je celo delno citiral. Posebno ganljivo je, da mu izpraševalec pomaga do konca citirati pesem, ki mu v pozni starosti predstavlja vse, kar starec zdaj od življenja še razume in občuti. Je eden izmed blestečih vrhov tega filma. Vlado Škafar je ustvaril s filmom pesem o človeku, pri kateri je vedno ostajal za kamero, in samo zelo lahno od časa do časa spomnil pripovednika ali pripovednico, da pove in izpove še nekaj iz svojega notranjega sveta in življenja. Vedno sem bila mnenja, da Slovenija lahko mnogo nudi mednarodni publiki. Film je bil izbran v Rotterdamskem filmskem festivalu, in potem ga je avstralski selektor Richard Moore uvrstil tudi na Melbourne International Film Festival 2009. Film je močan medij sedanjega časa. Upajmo na nadaljnje kvalitetne slovenske filmske produkcije na mednarodnih festivalih, ki potrjujejo in nadaljujejo močno kulturno tradicijo našega naroda.

Aleksandra L. Ceferin

3 August 2009