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PREDMESTJE / SUBURBS
year 2004 length 90' colour 35mm country Slovenia
directed by Vinko Möderndorfer
Firts Feature Film
Cast Renato Jenček (Marjan), Peter Musevski (Fredi), Jernej Ŝugman (Slavko), Silvo Božič (Lojz), Tadej Toš (Nebojša), Maja Lešnik, (Jasmina)
Screenplay Vinko Möderndorfer
Cinematography Dušan Joksimović
Editing Andrija Zafranović
Art Direction Andrej Stražišar
Costume Design Alenka Korla
Music Jani Golob
Producer Eva Rohrman
Production Forum Ljubljana, Emotionfilm, RTV Slovenija, VPK
World Sales
Forum Ljubljana
Kersnikova 4, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Tel +38 6 1431 4254 Fax +38 6 1433 8074
Press Office
Nerina Kocjancic
Tel + 38 6 1431 3175, Fax + 38 6 1430 6250 Mobile: +386 41 725 636
e-mail: nerina.kocjancic@film-sklad.si
synopsis
Suburbs is a film about middle generation men, who spend their evenings at the suburban bowling alley, pondering their lives in humorous discussions. However, these discussions uncover the stories of their lives, which are mostly unrealised, squandered, lost and miserable. The well-intentioned and seemingly amusing patrons of the suburban bowling alley become more and more dangerous as a young couple of a foreign nationality moves into the suburbs. On the horizon of the two young lives the misery of the suburban men can be seen even more clearly. From a simple, funny and entertaining idea of secretly filming the young couple's lovemaking arises a terrible image of irrational intolerance that always blames others for its own misery.
There are some widespread views about Slovenia. It is commonly believed that in terms of civilization it is much closer to Austria than to the Balkans; that it is the most successful country among the former Yugoslavian republics. Just in time and almost bloodlessly, without a war, it has succeeded to leave the federation.
As if to defy these views, movies coming from this "Slavic paradise" focus on the dark side of humanity. There is no war in these movies, but their characters are capable of violence, of chauvinism, of disdain for the other. These movies seem to say: "we are not innocent". In Spare Parts (Rezervni deli) by Damjan Kozole (Berlinale 2003), smugglers of refugees harass their victims. Also in Suburbs we find the theme of the stranger.
Trivial situations lead to monstrous consequences. An apparently innocent peeping at a young couple by four old mates from suburbs ends up in a manhunt. Thus, the "little-realism" turns into a Tarantino-style thriller. In Suburbs one can find the trace of the national conflicts in Yugoslavia, but a much more general interpretation is also possible. It is a psychological study of alienation widespread in the suburbs. With the four men (some of them lonely, some of them married) pornography has become a habit; for them, their neighbours have become pornographic objects.
Tadeusz Sobolewski
director's statement
Suburbs is a film about the worst suburbs of all. It is a story about the suburbs in the human soul. I am convinced that in this the story of Suburbs is universal, since it discusses the reasons for the irrational hatred, which unfortunately still smoulders all over our common Europe.
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