Neuštekani (Unplugged)  is a project long conceived by Sejo Sexon, who, as he says, wants to “right a wrong and perform live songs, many of which will see the stage for the first time.”

Neuštekani offers Zabranjeno pušenje in an unplugged version, with acoustic instruments, in a more intimate setting. Alongside previously undiscovered musical repertoire, you will also hear short stories and anecdotes related to their creation and birth, which are not included in the book Spomnim se, kao da je bilo danas (I remember that like it happened today).

Neuštekani aim to become the heroes of Zabranjeno pušenje fans, who have long wondered: Why do we never hear great songs like Pismo Elvisu, Laku noć stari, Arizona Dream, or Kad darnek utihne... In forty years of performing, the band has repeatedly proven themselves with provocative and unique lyrics in a rock-punk-garage style, earning a place in the hearts of their audience. In addition to their music, Sejo's stories and audience interaction have become an indispensable part of every performance.

Neuštekani are coming at the right time and will perform on January 24th at Cankarjev dom. The concert is one of three special events to take place in Sarajevo, Ljubljana, and Zagreb.
Before the concert, there will be a screening of the internationally acclaimed documentary Svjetla Sarajeva, which presents the fifty-year history of Skenderija, the famous Sarajevo hall, from the perspective of Sejo Sexon, the lead member of Zabranjeno pušenje, directed by Srđan Perkić and written by Sejo Sexon.

Cast: Špela Rozin, Teja Glažar, Jožica Avbelj, Olga Kacjan, Marinka Štern, Marijana Brecelj
Co-actor: Suzana Krevh
Written by: Iza Strehar
DOP: Fabris Šulin
Editing: Andrej Avanzo
Production design: Gregor Nartnik
Costume design: Tina Hribernik
Make up: Lea Bratušek
Producers: Ana Kovačič, Iza Strehar, Žiga Virc
Production: Lilit

The cast and crew will attend the screening. 

A unique documentary journey into the world of some of Slovenia's most iconic actresses, blending the past, the present and the attraction of the acting profession. The series interlaces the stories that usually remain untold with intimate glimpses at the filming process, going behind the scenes on a movie set. What did Špela Rozin tell the director of The Battle of Neretva? Who taught Jožica Avbelj how to put someone’s eye out? How did Teja Glažar's fellow actors end up in a police station? Where did Marijana Brecelj spend her teenage years? How did Olga Kacjan, as a child, enact the dying scene from La boheme for fun? Why did Marinka Štern want to be part of Pekarna?

In their episodes, each of the actresses plays the same scene alongside Suzana Krevh, but in her own unique way – providing a captivating insight into diverse personalities, techniques and passion for their work. The camera follows the process up close, taking us into each of the player’s very own world, a place of reminiscing, facing challenges, telling anecdotes, revealing feelings of jealousy and speaking about the beauty of their profession. The project allows the audience to feel part of a movie set, shedding light on the inner workings of the acting profession.
 

Episode synopses:

Špela Rozin, one of the few Slovenian actors who have dedicated their careers solely to film, started her career in Italy. She is bubbling with a playful, unresentful excitement at the thought of directors who "butchered" her roles and scenes in film editing. She thus plays her scene in the style of massacre movies.

As if we were enjoying a cup of coffee together, Teja Glažar recounts more or less politically correct anecdotes from her student days while bellowing with laughter, saying that she had never really wanted to become an actor. She enrolled in acting studies purely for the student status. Set in a medieval comedy, the scene is sprinkled with her strong sense of humour.

Jožica Avbelj’s temperament is as fiery as her ginger hair, striding purposefully into a room and inspiring awe. But in The Protagonists, Jožica reveals her positive and optimistic side, making us wish we could chat to her for hours. As she was also a stage acting teacher, her scene reenacts the genre of drama.

Olga Kacjan fell in love with performance art when she attended a circus performance as a little girl. One of her favourite memories is a production in which she played a clown, making kids laugh with her frolics. In The Protagonists, Olga plays her alter ego – Pepé the Clown. 

 
Marinka Štern has bittersweet memories of all the challenges she had to face at the Academy. Then she bursts out laughing and recalls her performances with live animals and other anecdotes. She suddenly gets serious, telling us that she has said too much, and it must not be used. Taking into account her wish to keep some details hidden, her scene has become a film noir.

Marijana Brecelj captured the attention of director Matjaž Klopčič when strolling around Ljubljana as a teenager. He cast her in his new film which made her feel like the world was her oyster. Her episode shows Marijana holding a huge present and entering a scene imbued with Christmas anticipation.
 

screenplay: Danis Tanović, Anja Matković, Nikola Kuprešanin
Cinematography: Miloš Jaćimović
Editing: Redžinald Šimek
Igrajo: Anja Matković (Maja), Uliks Fehmiu (Saša), Goran Navojec (Ičo), Almir Palata (Andrija), Mario Knezović, Marija Škaričić, Mirela Brekalo, Snježana Sinovčić, Luka Juričić, Boris Ler, Ivana Roščić, Jadranka Matković
Producers: Lana Matić, Boris T. Matić, Jelena Mitrović, Jovan Marjanović, Miha Černec
Production: Propeler Film
Festivals, awards (selection): Venice 2024
 

A young woman arrives on a remote island to solve an inheritance issue. In a whirlwind of new emotions, and through a series of unpredictable situations involving eccentric locals, she will finally face questions from her past. 

Maja comes to a small Croatian island to prove that the late sea captain Jakša was her father and to collect her fair share of the inheritance. Since the procedure can be lengthy, she decides to stay there for a while. The only option for her is to take a waitressing job at the bar owned by Mayor Ićo which also comes with free accommodation. There, she meets an older US expat of Yugoslav origin, Saša, who fancies himself an aspiring writer and has moved there for the nostalgic aspect of the place. A romance sets in, but his life situation is just as complicated as hers. As seemingly innocent incidents threaten to destroy the fragile ‘ecosystem’ of human relationships on the island, Maja’s past comes back to haunt her.

Danis Tanović
Born in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, in 1969. He grew up in Sarajevo, where he was involved in music and studied film directing. When the Yugoslav Wars broke out in 1992, he interrupted his studies and took to the battlefield, camera in hand. Immigrated to Belgium in 1994 to study directing in Brussels (INSAS). His debut film, No Man's Land, won Best Screenplay Award at the Cannes Film Festival, as well as the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film. 

After last year’s performance, Dear Me, which delved into the emotions and experiences of the dancers’ lives, this year the Be Funky Dance Association turns its focus to joy, happiness, and life’s true bliss in its production.

In today’s chaotic world, we are searching for ourselves. We drift away from our true essence. We live outside ourselves, striving daily to reach that Promised Land. We follow, chasing external achievements that feed our egos and give us a sense of success and importance. But then, we just want more each time. The path to the Promised Land and the journey toward pure, sincere happiness are sought outside ourselves. And life passes us by.

Who still truly lives as themselves?
Who still dances for their soul, simply because they feel the dance with all their heart?
Who still loves sincerely?
Who truly feels genuine joy in every moment of life?
Do we only experience all this once we’ve achieved everything promised?
Where is this Promised Land?

In the performance Promised Land, 180 dancers, aged 3 to 85, will offer the audience answers to these questions. They will embark on an enchanting journey of dancing through stories from the book Promised Land. An hour of dance will be filled with emotions and, above all, a search for life’s joy and happiness in a world that, in these times, clouds our vision of clarity.

Fanfara is the largest student marketing conference in Slovenia, hosting over 350 participants, a 30-member organizing team, and one great passion – marketing.

The conference offers a diverse program featuring lectures from local and international experts in the field of marketing, as well as practical workshops.

It is aimed at anyone who wishes to enhance their marketing knowledge.

Focusing on some of the autobiography’s most interesting chapters, the narrated photo show includes numerous photographs, many of which as yet unseen. Rather than a classical book launch, Arne Hodalič’s event comes to life as a travelogue with photographs and storytelling, about adventures such as the eight-month sailing trip through South-East Asia, an encounter with pirates, and the visit to the mystical Kogi people during a total solar eclipse. 

Arne Hodalič’s Moje svetlobe features some of his most interesting exploits, adventures that have left a lasting impression on the photographer, accompanied by his personal writings. Moje svetlobe was published in collaboration with editors Tadeja L. Zupan and Ana von Pauer, designer Grega Inkret, and with the help of his partner Katja Bidovec, his travelling companion over the last decade, and co-author of the Moje svetlobe project.

 

1: The Ganges River, India
Arne's first trip to India in 1988, still as a classic traveller. 
Photo: Arne Hodalič 

2 and 5: Bazdur refugee camp, Algeria  
Socially critical and social stories make for a large part of Arne's photographic oeuvre. The story of the refugee camps of Western Sahara is one of his last. 
Photo: Arne Hodalič 

3: Gold rush in Papua New Guinea
An adventure story documenting the onset of a massive gold rush in the mountains of Papua New Guinea. 
Photo: Arne Hodalič 

4: Inca treasure looters, Ecuador
An illegal private collection of gold objects from looted Inca graves. 
Photo: Arne Hodalič 

6: Member of the Kara people, Ethiopia
A photographic project documenting disappearing cultures, developed in partnership with photographer Katja Bidovec. 
Photo: Arne Hodalič and Katja Bidovec

7: Island of Mljet, Croatia
16th-century Venetian shipwreck. Arne has documented the remarkable work of Croatian archaeologists who have spent several years investigating the wreckage.  
Photo: Arne Hodalič 

In 2021, two worlds collided on Ljubljana's Prekmurski trg.
The incident between a group of contemporary dancers and a group of homeless people sounds too unbelievable to be true. Even so, it reflects an everyday reality where conflict plays such an overbearing role it has encroached on society at large. The collision between two worlds as different as contemporary dancers and homeless people constitutes a complex problem impossible to assess by means of generalisations or distinctions between the privileged and the underprivileged, the good and the bad.

A dance troupe organises an artistic event in a square of a medium-sized town during a pandemic in early spring. As the dancers rehearse, homeless people start to gather nearby... The dancers keep dancing, and the homeless people, whose numbers are increasing, watch and comment wryly. Their comments become witty, the quips become hostile and insulting, the remarks become loud and eventually shouts, the abusive speech turns into threats and intimidation. The dancers keep dancing as if unaware of their surroundings, choosing to ignore the possibility of impending danger, even though the behaviour of the homeless persons portends conflict. The homeless begin to enter the choreography. The next moment the music stops, the choreographic sequence is concluded, and the dancers leave the scene.

Fleeing from the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara, Aziza Brahim grew up in refugee camps, listening to the radio for hours on end. Through music, she was able to communicate her personal story, relating it to those of others, and her life seemed to get easier. 
Her latest album, Mawja, mirrors that feeling. “It refers to that magical moment when you turn on the radio and that song you like just starts playing,” explained the singer when the album came out. The music reflects the percussive beats of the Iberian Peninsula, the pulsating rhythms she soaked up as a student in Barcelona. Infused with blues, folk music and desert punk, the album also finds inspiration in The Clash. In addition to sorrow and tender elegies – dedicated to her late grandmother, an important poet of the Sahrawi revolution and culture – the music conveys a strong sense of hope, exploration and adventure.

Bitter comedy Paradise, set in a nursing home of a small Slovenian town, portrays the life of its residents. It is based on documentary (memoir) material, which makes it authentic and unsentimental. It introduces the theme of ageing by means of interwoven themes of exclusion, isolation, loneliness, death, (un)fulfilment of life and physical and mental health. Paradise does not aspire to be (just) a documentary testimony, but a contemporary fairy tale celebrating life – with equal opportunities for all. It assembles stories like a mosaic, proceeding from memories that evoke regrets, fears, melancholy in the elderly, and elicit bitter laughter of recognition by the audience. The stories blend into a subtle eulogy of the moment when we glimpse the meaning in the daily drift of often underestimated values, since the play explores the value of life from the only relevant point of view – the end of the timeline, close to death. This point of view, using a delicate prism of bioethics, as it were, touches also upon the individuals’ right to end their suffering and pain. 

Paradise is mostly a non-verbal performance, based on a mask play in the manner of Spiazzi's specialisation – commedia dell’arte. The style of commedia dell’arte, employing full masks, is characterised by comic features, albeit spiked with a theme of bitter aftertaste. Spiazzi has already dealt with the theme of ageing: in Minsk, Belarus, he created Family Album, an original project, presenting three generations of a family stuck in a small flat of the elderly grandmother and mother. In Kiev, he paid several visits to a nursing home together with drama students, where they collected the residents’ reminiscences and created a performance called The Belvedere Boarding House. In Paradise, Spiazzi aims to explore the uninhibited draining away of time (life) taken-for-granted, as we spend it rather miserably in our service to the capital on a daily basis, and take notice of all that is worthwhile rather instantaneously, impatiently, distractedly. When was the last time, for example, that you sat down in a comfortable chair and gazed through the window without saying a word?

Matteo Spiazzi (born in 1987) is an Italian director and theatre pedagogue. He graduated from the Nico Pepe Academy of Dramatic Arts in Udine with a degree in theatre directing, specialising in mask work. He has worked as a director, theatre pedagogue, lecturer, producer, and event organiser in Italy and internationally. He has held lectures and given practical seminars on theatrical masks at the University of Verona, the Central University of Quito in Ecuador, the Art Department of the University of Tartu in Estonia, the National Academy of Dramatic Arts of Belarus in Minsk, the University of Culture of Kiev, as well as at the Theatre Academy DAMU in Prague. Spiazzi is a recipient of many awards and prizes for his work as a director.

Duration 1 hour and 10 minutes (no break)

Stage adaptation by Luka Marcen and Tatjana Doma
Director Luka Marcen

The story of Drago Jančar’s monumental novel And Love Itself (2017) begins with a chance event: two girls stand in the middle of Maribor’s square in front of the Astoria Cafe, and one of them recognizes an acquaintance in a passing member of the SS units. This encounter triggers a dramatic series of events that forever change the lives of all involved. And Love Itself is not just a historical war or love novel, although it is both. Primarily, it is an intimate story about the destructive power of love – and hatred that fatefully connects all four main narrators.

Through the intimate stories of people from different corners of history, Jančar essentially includes the city of Maribor as the central protagonist, thus creating a literary monument to it. The stage adaptation by director Luka Marcen and dramaturg Tatjana Doma takes Jančar’s complex web of intimate human destinies and perspectives on a turbulent historical time as its starting point. And Love Itself is not a historical view of the events of World War II in the city of Maribor but primarily a reminder of today’s turbulent moment of how important humanity is. For love to survive, love alone is not enough.