East of the West - Competition 2013 / Adria Blues / Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina 2013
Aging Bosnian rocker Toni Riff hasn’t written a single song in twenty years; suffering from depression, he relies on financial support from his wife Sonia. The latter decides to make a last-ditch attempt to salvage Toni’s talent – and their marriage. Maintaining the necessary degree of detachment, Miroslav Mandić’s incisive tragicomedy examines certain consequences of war in the former Yugoslavia.
Toni Riff is an aging former rock star from Bosnia who left for Slovenia during the war and then married one of his fans, Sonia. Paralysed by depression, Toni hasn’t written a single song in the last two decades. As a result, he has to rely on the support of his wife who, to Toni’s irritation, earns a living as a phone-sex operator. When one of her regular clients, a big fan of Toni’s, offers to organise a come-back concert for him at his coastal hotel Adria, Sonia sees this as an opportunity to finally drag her husband out of his depression.... Adopting the necessary degree of detachment, Miroslav Mandić’s incisive tragicomedy examines the consequences of war in the former Yugoslavia. Unlike the host of films appearing over the past two decades which have regularly described the manifold atrocities of war, Adria Blues, in the filmmaker’s own words, looks at people whose lives were influenced by the conflict in a different way; individuals who, because of the war, abandoned any creative energy they had in them, losing all their illusions and ambitions in the process.
91 min / Color, DCP
World premiere
Director Miroslav Mandić
/ Screenplay Miroslav Mandić
/ Dir. of Photography Jure Černec
/ Music Aldo Kumar
/ Editor Stanko Kostanjevec
/ Producer Frenk Celarc, Miroslav Mandić, Ida Weiss
/ Production Gustav film, Filmostovje
/ Cast Senad Bašić, Mojca Funkl, Maja Taraniš, Franja Dijak, Peter Musevski, Gregor Zorc, Iva Babić
/ Contact Slovenian Film Center, Gustav film
www: www.adriablues.com
Miroslav Mandić (b. 1955, Sarajevo) graduated from Columbia University in New York. His short film Workers’ Marriage (Brak radnika, 1985) won the Grand Prix at the Kraków IFF and several awards at other festivals as well. His feature film debut Walking on the Water (Život radnika, 1987) won the top award at the Strasbourg IFF. In 1989-91, he was involved as co-writer and director in what was then the most popular TV show in the former Yugoslavia, the satirical television series "Top Chart of Surrealists” ("Top lista nadrealista”). During the war in Bosnia he lived in the Czech Republic, where he collaborated on a number of TV documentaries. He has been living and working in Ljubljana since 2005. The documentary Borderline Lovers (Ljubav na granici, 2005) was premiered at the Locarno IFF and was subsequently a success at other international festivals. Adria Blues is his second feature.
Slovenian Film Center
Miklošičeva 38, 1000, Ljubljana
Slovenia
Phone: +38 612 343 200
Fax: +38 612 343 219
E-mail: [email protected]
Gustav film
Stegne 7, 1000, Ljubljana
Slovenia
Phone: +386 590 319 95
Fax: +386 590 319 96
E-mail: [email protected]
Nerina Kocjancić
Film Institution Rep.
Miroslav Mandić
Film Director, Film Director
Frenk Celarc
Producer
Senad Bašić
Actor
Mojca Funkl
Actress
Jožko Rutar
Distributor, Producer, Service Company Rep.
First-hand brews throughout the year.
Be among the first to learn about upcoming events and other news. We only send the newsletter when we have something to say.
