Ode To The Poet

Colour, 35mm
Slovenia, 2001, 101 min
Section: East of the West
Oficiální stránky: www.emotionfilm.si/oda

Synopsis

The celebration of the anniversary of Slovenian poet laureate Prešeren calls for a strong occasional poem. The Ministry of Culture commissions Miha with the weighty task, though his only ‘published’ works are advertising jingles. Miha quickly sets aside his doubts about being the right man for the job after hearing of the 30,000 marks that go along with it. After his perfidious girlfriend walks out, a student librarian named Petra becomes the young poet’s new muse, but even her efforts to pull the melancholy Miha out of his lethargy have no visible effect. His writer’s block gets worse by the day, while the celebration draws unrelentingly nearer. The ministry puts on the pressure and Miha’s chance of a lifetime becomes his disgrace: he feels forced to put his name to idiotic doggerel quickly scribbled down by some clerk and looks towards the day of the celebration with something more than dread. Then a sudden flash of poetic, though hardly national, inspiration changes everything. After all, an ode is not the only form of poetry.

About the director

Martin Srebotnjak (b. 1972, Ljubljana) drew the attention of the public and critics alike with his 1996 short film Cinders, and followed it up with Vivere (1996), another short. In 2000, Srebotnjak’s graduation film The Ultimate Guide for Bachelors won the Jury Prize for Best Student Film at the 3rd Festival of Slovenian Film in Portorož. He is completing another short film this year entitled Vinko (2001). Ode to the Poet is his feature debut.