Experienced Slovenian director Damjan Kozole has come to Karlovy Vary to introduce his new film Nightlife, which will have its world premiere in the Official Selection competition. This chamber drama tells the story of the wife of a lawyer who was found lying half naked in the streets of Ljubljana, torn apart by dogs.
“We were inspired by actual events from February 2010, when the naked body of a doctor, torn apart by dogs, was found in Ljubljana with a large, wooden dildo lying beside him. This case caused a big scandal and elicited thousands of commentaries, and I was thinking whether it was worse to be killed by dogs or by people,” said Kozole at the press conference, adding that the “smell of fear” became the starting point of his film. “Europe is now in a strange state of fear,” believes the director.
His Croatian colleague Ognjen Sviličić again worked with him on the screenplay. “I approach similar real-life events as a physician approaches a sick patient. I see newspaper articles as the symptoms of a disease. Like Dr House, our goal is to find out what’s behind it,” said the screenwriter.
Producer Danijel Hočevar has also been one of the director’s regular collaborators for over thirty years. Hočevar is delighted that Slovenia has two films in two competitions (the film Houston, We Have a Problem! is competing in the East of the West section). Allegedly, the situation with films in the former Yugoslavian country is not as rosy as it seems, however: “Public funding has been reduced by a half in the last six years,” complained Hočevar.
Kozole is, nevertheless, preparing a few other projects. “In our country you never know what you will actually end up making, but for filmmakers, it is always important to have something in the works. That’s how I keep myself alive,” said Kozole.
