Iridium Film

Albert is an elderly man, a cynic, a choleric, and a racist. He lives in a wheelchair in a spacious flat in Trieste surrounded with his solitude of obsessive memory fragments, in which his unresolved relations with family members reside as he had distanced himself from them long time ago. His only contacts with reality are Ida on one hand, an educated middle-aged lady, who arrives from Istria to Albert's place twice a week to clean up, cook for him and to bathe him, and Albert's looking through the window on the other hand. That day Albert's and Ida's time together starts with Albert's nagging, him being cynical and aggressive. Ida puts up with his horrible communication with dignity and peace, but that ignites Albert's malicious behaviour even more.

The armed conflicts of the 1990s not only visibly destroyed the land of the former Yugoslavia, but also left the deepest wounds in the memory of each of its belligerent nations. There are as many different interpretations of that bleak past as there are countries affected. It is therefore hard to expect absolute harmony when, less than two decades since the war ended, a diverse group of veterans gathers at a remote mountain hotel for a therapy session over several days. On the contrary, such a dangerously volatile situation can suddenly ignite by just one thoughtless word, or a seemingly dirty look. That’s because the former soldiers, obstinately holding on to their fundamental masculinity and their prejudices, refusing to expose the inhumanity of the atrocities perpetrated. However, this quietness is just about to be broken and hidden emotions are to be faced.

Among the many dramatic episodes of the siege of Sarajevo in the years 1992 to 1996, the story of a human safari has remained concealed from the public eye. Few people knew that those fighting the war on the Serbian side were not only the Bosnian Serb Army, volunteers and mercenaries but also a small, clandestine group: wealthy foreigners who paid high fees for the chance to shoot at the residents of the city under siege.

What is Man? “Homo” shows six faces, six phases in cleverly- connected, blackly comic episodes as desperate characters meet unwittingly in a modern metropole in the eternal search for the means to survive, and find some kind of love. The jobless graduate becomes a grave digger, the grieving widow a nun, the priests gamble and gangsters rule the courts. Only the lonely child may find some affection when hope springs eternal.

Riki works for a struggling catering company. Ado, his misogynistic colleague and brother-in-law, wants to fix the business by beating up Melisa, a former co-worker who is a top cake-maker, to force her to work with them again. All the rest of the employees dismiss Ado's plan as stupid and senseless. However, Ado is a stubborn savage, and his colleagues know he won't give up unless he is stopped. Riki is divided between a sense of justice, and the norms through which we tolerate family and friends no matter what they do.

In Rod El Farag, one of the poorest residential areas in Cairo, obtaining meat, fruit and daily bread is a constant struggle. But the sense of community shared by the inhabitants there helps them to some extent overcome their hardships through a social practice known as ‘al Gami’ya’, or ‘the assembly’.

"Instead of Whom a Flower Now Blooms", "That Black Guitar", "Dizzy Heights" and other songs by the singer, poet and author Vlado Kreslin have already become folk tunes. Vlado is an eminent performer of popular music with a cult status, which is not a result of self-promotion strategies, but rather a consequence of his exceptional personal charisma and suggestive music expression. The documentary takes a look at the key stages of how Vlado Kreslin developed his authentic artistic expression. At the same time it frames the wider cultural context that Vlado has been creating in for more than forty years. However, this is first and foremost a film about music and music lovers.

The film is set in a youth home, which houses children who have been removed from socially inappropriate environments.