Slovenia

I AM FRANK: the return of a charismatic misfit

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I AM FRANK. Photo courtesy of Cinequest.

In the excellent Slovenian drama I Am Frank, the title character returns to Slovenia after years abroad.  Frank has some baggage, so hardly anyone is happy to see him back, including his own mother.  Frank’s brother Brane greets him warmly, but warily.

Frank is one of those opinionated, contentious and perpetually dissatisfied people who think nobody can get along with because of their unbending principles; but it’s really because he’s too self absorbed to understand any one else’s point of view.  A Marxist true believer, he’s let Slovenia after the dissolution of Communist Yugoslavia, but has now left Israel in outrage after his kibbutz was privatized. Frank leaves no emotional scab unpicked and has never left well enough alone.

Frank and Barnes father has died leaving an unexpected fortune.  Brane, a successful if shady entrepreneur, starts thinking about how to invest the inheritance and get richer.  Frank is consumed by the fact that the windfall must have been built illegitimately. What Frank uncovers leads us into a paranoid thriller and tumult between the brothers and Brane’s dangerous business associates.

Writer-director Mitod Pevec has created a marvelous charcter in the charismtic misfit Frank, well played by Janez Skof. Valtar Gragan is equally good in the less showy part of Brane, the guy with his own business and family challenges, trying to hold it all together despite his volatile brother.

Cinequest hosts the US premiere of I Am Frank. which is one of the world cinema highlights of the festival.

Cinequest: THE MINER

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In the gripping Slovene drama The Miner (Rudar), the experienced miner Alija (Leon Lucev) is tasked with checking out an abandoned mine before it is permanently sealed. No one wants anything found in the old shaft, let alone anything controversial. But Alijah is a man burdened by a great sense of duty.  As a Bosnian immigrant, he has also been seared by the Bosnian genocide.

The movie starts out as a mystery and urns into a psychological thriller.  Indeed, [MINOR SPOILER] the mine that has been closed since 1945 is revealed to contain a mass grave.  Embued with the Bosnian resolve to “find them all”, Alijah is not about to cooperate in the coverup that his employer and the Slovenian government desire.  Alijah is a man of few words, but he is eloquent when he relates the family story to his adult daughter. The Miner is based on a true story.

The writer-director is Hannah Antonina Wojcik Slak, and The Miner is her third feature.

I saw The Miner at Cinequest.  Cinequest’s international film scout Charlie Cockey specializes in Eastern European cinema and brought this gem to the festival. Slak won Best Director and Lucev won Best Actor at the Slovene Film Festival, and The Miner was Slovenia’s submission to the Oscars.