Ivan

A rough and thrilling drama about the dilemma of taking the wrong choices. The best feature film at this year’s LET’S CEE Film Festival in Vienna and Slovenian candidate for the Oscars. Dutch Premiere

Synopsis

Ivan comes into this world on the background of a corrupted world and a chain of unexpected and nerve wrecking events begins. Ivan’s father Rok, a married businessman whom Mara, his mother obsessively loves, is missing. When she finds out that Rok is accused of a white-collar crime, she gets brutally beaten by his wife’s cronies. Mara and Rok manage to get together, but Mara finds herself in an impossible situation when she has to choose between her lover and her child. The film received eight awards at the Festival of Slovenian Film, including the best feature film award for its ‘’vertiginous dance of images and sound that take hold of the viewer already in the first scene and don’t let go until the end. A deeply moving comment of the state of mind in contemporary Slovenia, but not only that. His almost hypnotic oscillating between feelings of yearning and desperation is something we are all familiar with, one way or the other.”

Festivals & Awards (selection)

Tallinn Black Nights IFF, 2017 | Festival of Slovenian Film, 2017 – Best Fiction Feature Film, Best Script, Best Actress, Best Photography, Best Music, Best Make-Up, Slovenian Film Critics’ Jury Award, Slovene Art Cinema Association Award | Sharm el Sheikh IFF, Egypt – Best Film Award | LET’S CEE Film Festival, Vienna 2018 – Best Feature Film

Director’s statement

After 25 years of ideological hysterization of Slovenian society which was a front for theft and the sale of welfare state and social property, and which led to feudalization of the state through economic and political connections, all ideals on which this state was being constituted, disappeared. The belief in common goals and common good, welfare state and equality in front of the law was replaced by cynicism and general social anxiety, surfacing every now and then from under a seeming apathy in the form of a bizarre aggression. The country has only just begun to wake up and enforce sovereignty on its territory. Sovereignty in the sense of respecting the law that is supposed to be the same for all. The result of this are notorious, almost daily house searches, charges, processes and high prison sentences for people who have until recently been considered to be exemplary businessmen or deserving politicians. A few years ago this would have looked like science fiction. IVAN is born into this moment and doesn’t have any influence on what is happening around him. However, the outcome of the events will largely affect the course and particularly the quality of his life.