Section: Youth Film U18 Competition

JEZDECA

Riders

Dominik Mencej
SI, 2021, 90 Min

Easy Riders in the Wild Southeast. Tomaž and his buddy Tunc have seen Dennis Hopper's motorcycle classic on an old VHS cassette and now they themselves dream of leaving their Slovenian provincial backwater for the big, wide world on pimped-up mopeds. They dream of the capital Ljubljana, the sea and heady parties in Split. A retro-looking, magically beguiling journey through time captured in CinemaScope.

Tomaž and Tunc are childhood friends. Though now over the age of 20, they’re still always up for a laugh. Tomaž, the more good-natured of the two, is a mechanic and lives with his pious mother. Tunc, whose real name is Anton, is the rebel. With the help of Tomaž's skills, they pimp their mopeds so that they at least somewhat resemble Jack Nicholson and Dennis Hopper’s Harleys in "Easy Rider". The friends first plan to head to Ljubljana and later to the sea. On the way, they meet Ana, a nun who shortly thereafter experiences a powerful change of heart, and the biker Peter, who rides a real motorbike. Employing no small amount of nostalgia, director Dominik Mencej portrays the break-loose sentiment experienced by many in the aftermath of the Yugoslav wars and the longing for freedom in an era when there were still video cassettes and Walkmans and young people were still able to dream endlessly.

Text: Jörg Taszman
English: Peter Rickerby

Kammerbühne: original version with English subtitles + German simultaneous translation

Drehbuch
Boris Grgugović, Dominik Mencej
Kamera
Janez Štucin
Ton
Samo Jurca
Schnitt
Andrej Nagode, Matic Drakulić
Ausstattung
Iva Rodić
Darsteller
Petja Labović, Timon Šturbej, Anja Novak
Produzent
Miha Černec, Jožko Rutar, Milan Stojanović, Danijel Pek, Srdjan Šarenac, Igor Prinčič
Produktion
Staragara
Co-Produktion
Teo Rižnar - , Sense production, Antitalent, Novi film, Transmedia, Nuframe
Dominik Mencej

Dominik Mencej - Dominik Mencej (1987), writer and director, graduated in film and TV directing from the AGRFT. Worked as a director on many TV series. Best known in Slovenia for his award-winning and critically-acclaimed magic realist short films. Interested in finding new ways to tell unconventional stories.

Movies
Growing up (2017, with S. Gačić, documentary), The Springtime Sleep (2014, fiction), and Garbage Day (2011, documentary short).

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