(Petelinji zajtrk)
Slovenia/Croatia 2007. Director: Marko Naberšnik
Cast: Vlado Novak, PrimoŽ Bezjak, Pia ZemljiČ, Dario Varga, Janez Škof, Severina Vuckovic
The debut feature of writer-director Marko Naberšnik has become Slovenia’s biggest-ever home-grown hit and the third-highest-grossing movie of all time in the country, after Titanic and Troy. The film is an offbeat, bittersweet comedy-drama set in 1998. Djuro (Primož Bezjak), a recently laid-off auto mechanic, takes a job out in the sticks working in the garage owned by amiable Gajas (Vlado Novak). Gajas, who spends his days reminiscing about the glory days of Yugoslavia under Tito, is erotically obsessed with Croatian pop superstar Severina Vuckovic (who appears in a cameo). Djuro, for his erotic part, makes the big mistake of falling into the arms of femme fatale Bronja (Pia Zemljič), wife of the local mob boss (Dario Varga). Rooster’s Breakfast won national films awards for best actor (Novak), director, and screenplay, and was Slovenia’s official Foreign Language Film submission to this year’s Academy Awards. “Always on the verge of becoming a kind of thriller, Rooster’s Breakfast is packed with eccentric characters and subplots” (Film Society of Lincoln Center). Colour, 35mm. 125 mins.
Winner of the audience award at the Bratislava film festival, Half-Life, by first-time feature director Vlado Fischer, is a blackly comic ensemble piece about contemporary relationships. Fortysomething Viktor, a philandering man in the throes of a mid-life crisis, already has enough women in his life, what with Karla, his long-suffering, unhappily-childless wife; Lucia, his business partner; and Madonna, his favourite barmaid. Entering into this crowded picture is young photography student Mia, whom Viktor rescues from the Danube after an apparent suicide attempt. Turns out Mia wasn’t trying to kill herself – she was trying to photograph herself, trussed up with duct tape, in the reflection of the river. Viktor lets himself fall in love with the young artist, but it doesn’t help him recapture his lost youth, and he must contend with the Mia’s boorish Goth boyfriend, and with her parents, who just happen to be old school friends of Viktor’s. Director Fischer’s previous credits include Duchovia, said to be the first Slovak sitcom. Colour, 35mm, in Slovak with English subtitles. 100 mins.
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