Role Model

by Nejc Gazvoda

Vzornik, fiction
Expected delivery: Q2 2023
SI

MAJA (45) and JAN (14), a mother and her son, live in an apartment building in a small, unnamed town. Recently divorced, MAJA is a psychologist at a nearby primary school, which JAN attends, currently in his final year. The film starts in the last days of April 2020, with strict anti-epidemic measures implemented in school. JAN is extremely lonely, hurt by his parents’ divorce, and suffering abuse in school. His new schoolmate is JAKOB, who has tried to commit suicide unsuccessfully. MAJA is in charge of JAKOB’s rehabilitation, but JAKOB is a part of a gang that terrorises schools, especially JAN. If JAN wants to survive these last months, he has to lose the mysterious nickname “Sunshine” that bullies have given him. JAN finds solace in a mysterious man, also named JAN, who lives in a flat opposite his and is as violent as he is infantile. Meanwhile, MAJA starts to drink again, feeling lost and pressured by a newcomer, NEJA, a chillingly kind and competitive young psychologist.

director
Nejc Gazvoda
production
Perfo
co-production
Evolution Films, La Sarraz Pictures, Biberche
co-funding
Slovenian Film Centre
Nejc Gazvoda

Nejc Gazvoda (1985) is the director, screenwriter, and novelist who received the Prešeren Award (the highest university recognition) for his diploma work in film and television directing, Fragma: An Ounce of Luck (2008). His feature debut A Trip (2011) has received awards at numerous international film festivals and was nominated for the Slovenian Academy Award. As a screenwriter, he participated in Personal Baggage (2009, J. Lapajne) and Class Enemy (2013, R. Biček). After the internationally acclaimed film Dual (2013), The Father Figure is his third feature film.