We are continuing our analysis of Slovenian films. This time, it is Goran Vojnović and Igor Šterk’s hobby projects’ turn, which are weighed down with awards from film festivals but did very poorly in the cinemas – but fortunately, they received financial backing from the taxpayers.
In our previous article, we learned about the incredible sums of money from the taxpayers that were spent for the funding of the hobby projects of director Vinko Möderndorfer, and instead of a cathartic viewing experience, the spectators get nothing tangible in return for their funding. This time, we will analyse two more films from the Slovenian avant-garde, and in the next article, we will talk about the upcoming Slovenian films.
Goran Vojnović – “Nekoč so bili ljudje” (“Once Were Humans”)
The darling of the Slovenian far left, which wants to tear down the border fences and permanently resettle 50 million people from the sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East in Slovenia. Vojnović is completely obsessed with the subject of migration and expertly intertwines illegal migrations with regular, economic ones. Thus, this film is also about the boring, predictable subject of how we Europeans need to open our doors, our hearts, and our wallets to newcomers from abroad – as soon as possible. Here is a more detailed description of the movie. Leo is an Italian living in Slovenia, and Vučko is a former refugee from Bosnia. Threatened with losing their restaurant, they accept an offer from the conman Gianni: they must steal his truck so that Gianni can collect the money from the insurance company. But the two friends accidentally take the wrong truck – and in it, they find unexpected cargo – migrants… Sorry, refugees. A similar theme was already explored in one of Branko Đurić – Đuro’s boring cinematic masterpieces.
Vojnović’s movie attracted 101 viewers in its first weekend in cinemas, and in total, 979 people saw it, which means that the film brought in 5,073 euros, 500 of which came from value-added tax. Meanwhile, we, the taxpayers, gave Goran 640,000 euros for his hobby project.
Igor Šterk – “9.06”
The big winner of the 12th Festival of Slovenian Film (Festival slovenskega filma – FSF) in 2009 was the film “9.06” by director Igor Šterk, which literally swept away the competition.
Here is what the film is about: a criminal inspector is investigating a mysterious death. The investigation turns into an obsession; the inspector secretly moves into the deceased’s apartment and eventually begins to assume his identity. Despite the awards and the praise of Marcel Štefančič Jr., the film sold 5,839 tickets and earned 17,036 euros, while the VAT on the tickets amounted to 1,618 euros. The taxpayers’ contribution to the project was enormous – 1,401,562 euros.
In the continuation of this series of articles, we will take a look at how much the upcoming films will cost you and what cultural and educational themes they will delight you with.
Andrej Žitnik
