Matevž Luzar (1981), director and screenwriter, graduated from film school with his acclaimed short film Wolfy (2007), which was nominated for the Honorary Foreign Award at the 35th Annual Student Academy Awards competition and has won numerous other awards. After Good to Go (2012), Orchestra will be his second fiction feature.
Besides his work as a director and screenwriter, he also teaches screenwriting in Ljubljana. From 2020, he is a president of the Directors Guild of Slovenia and is a member of European film academy.
“Orchestra is my most personal feature film because the story revolves around the people and orchestra from my hometown. For years, I would travel with the exact orchestra you can see in the film as an observer. This film is not a documentary, but rather a fiction film with a real-life orchestra.
As a filmmaker, I wanted to capture the atmosphere of an orchestra on tour: I wanted to show the feeling of freedom, partying, and days of careless fun as well as explore all the aspects of a band tour.
How the members of the orchestra see it. How the Austrian hosts see it. And how the wives back home experience it. In Orchestra, I was most interested in the culture clash between two nations and the generational clash within the orchestra. Real-life events usually involve several perspectives but merely a single truth, so I wanted to explore this in Orchestra. The film is in black and white, but it is not ʻblack in whiteʼ as far as the feeling is concerned. It has all the colours of the bittersweet real life.”
WP:
Film Festival Cottbus, International competition, 2021
Awards:
Iris Award best cinematography (ZFS - Združenje filmskih snemalcev Slovenije, 2023)
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Prešeren's Fund Award best feature film (Ministrstvo za kulturo Republike Slovenije, 2023)
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Štigličev Pogled Award best directing (Directors Guild of Slovenia, 2023)
,
Close-up Award best role (DSI - Društvo slovenskih avdiovizualnih igralcev, 2023)
,
nagrada Forward Future best directing (Beijing International Film Festival, 2022)
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Srebrna zvezda best directing (Cinedays Festival of European Film, 2022)
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3 Vesna Award awards (Festival of Slovenian Film, 2022)