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Mit - UVK_Sinfo_2008_09_št.13 - Index

s o C i e t y
Slovene filmmakers lived to see their films premier at the festival:
the director Vinko Mőderndorfer, with his movie ‘Landscape no.
2’ (Pokrajina št. 2), on which Sinfo already reported, and the
director Igor ©terk with his short film ‘Every Breath You Take’.
Mőderndorfer’s film competed for the Young Lion of the Future
award and received interesting and commendable reviews, while
©terk’s competed for the Corto Cortissimo award and made it to
the central programme as one of 18 films selected from 1400 (!)
applicants.
©terk’s film is very minimalistic, running for only about ten
minutes. It focuses on a family tragedy after a traffic accident
caused by a father, in which the mother is killed, while the son
remains in a coma. The father and daughter are left alone, trying
to get on with their lives the best they can.
ThIS yEAR’S EX PONTO ON fAITh AND
BELIEf
The theatre festival Ex Ponto has become a tradition in Ljubljana,
attracting a lot of attention and undoubtedly performing its
cultural mission well, as this year it is presented for the fifteenth
time. The festival emerged immediately after the break-up of the
former Yugoslavia as the only one able to amalgamate the huge
theatrical energies of high quality from this area. Today its area
of influence has extended further, encompassing most of southeast
Europe. The festival’s reputation as one of the heights of
theatre creativity has won considerable attention from European
theatre critics.
Damir DomitroviÊ Kos, president of the B-52 association, which
organises the festival, has accentuated their wish to present a
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thematic trilogy of politics, faith and family. This year their
attention is directed at faith and belief, which are most difficult
to present. They do not mean faith in the sense of religion, but
faith in love, happiness, life, and country also. Among the eight
performances staged in Ljubljana, two theatre giants carry the
greatest weight, Chekov and Brecht.
The festival started at the Slovene National Theatre Drama
in Ljubljana with the Romanian director Silviu Purcarete’s
‘Pantagruel Sister-in-law’ and ended with Brecht’s ‘Drums in the
Night’ by the Macedonian National Theatre Vojdan »ernodrinski,
directed by Martin KoËovski. Another performance should also
be mentioned, ‘Drunk Night 1918’ by the Ulysses Theatre from
the Brioni Islands, directed by Lenka UdoviËki, performed on
the grand stage of Cankarjev dom. The accompanying program
includes two exhibitions − one at the ©KUC Gallery and the other
by the multimedia artist Tanja VujinoviË at the Kapelica Gallery.
BETONTANC IN NEThERLANDS AND IN
GERmANy
The well-known dance-theatre group ‘Betontanc’ performed
at the Noorderzone Performing Arts Festival in Groningen,
Netherlands, with their ‘Show Your Face’. The show was directed
by the famous group director Matjaž Pograjc in co-operation
with the Latvian artists ‘Umka LV’, known as the “object theatre”.
The group ‘Silence’ and the Latvian saxophonist Ugis Vitins
contributed the music of the show. The key theme of the piece
are people without a face − those who were trampled over by
history, who became powerless victims of aggression and who
are not remembered by anybody.
At the end of August ‘Betontanc’ also performed at the Tanzmesse
in Düsseldorf, Germany, with the performance ‘Wrestling
Dostoyevsky’, about the individual existence. The performance
attracted great attention and received good reviews from expert
critics.
mIRA SARDOË DIES
The Slovene theatre lost another of its great ladies, the actress
Mira SardoË, who died at the beginning of September in Ljubljana.
Ms. SardoË was the bearer of the highest Slovene theatre award,
the ‘Borštnik’ ring, and was a member of the Permanent Slovene
Theatre in Trieste for many years. Born in 1930 in ©entilj, in the
Slovenske gorice region, she was a child of Slovene parents from
the vicinity of Trieste who were forced to move away from the
violence of Italian fascism. In 1952 she accepted an engagement
at the Slovene National Theatre Drama in Maribor, then moved
to the Ljubljana City Theatre, and finally to the third station on
her journey as an actress to Trieste, where here roots led her. She
played a fascinating number of theatre, as well as television and
film roles, and engraved herself in theatre history as an elegant
and sophisticated lady of bourgeois salons, as well as a zealous
partisan, fighting for the freedom of her nation.
‘SLOVENSkA POPEVkA’ 2008 − ANŽEJ
DEŽAN wINS
This year’s ‘Slovenska popevka’ song contest took place at the
ceremonious ‘Križanke’ open theatre in Ljubljana. The young
singer Anžej Dežan, known as the host of TV shows, as well
as a contestant in the Eurovision song contest a few years ago,
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