The Silence of Life

by Nina Blažin

V tišini življenja, 2024, documentary, digital DCP, 2,39:1/2,35:1, 24, c, 87 min
Finished

An observational documentary with cinematic experience asking: What is important in life? The motivation for the film is director’s loss of her father. Every one of us will have to face mortality. It’s up to us what we’ll be like in those moments. A strong woman, a palliative care promoter Manca Košir is diagnosed with cancer, celebrating life all along. She says her friendship with death began at the age of 19 on the shoot of BIRCH TREE (1967), where she lay in a coffin for a month while filming. Film explores the director’s experience of the loss of her father. With home videos of her mother, filmed by the director, she contemplates her father’s absence and intertwines the material with Manca’s story. The film gives viewers a chance to think about their own loss, their own mortality. How does time affect our memories, our loss? Observational film explores acceptance of time and celebration of life. What will you do with the time you have left?

screenwriter
Nina Blažin
director
Nina Blažin
producer
Igor Pediček
co-producer
Borut Atlagič
director of photography
Darko Herič
music composer
Aldo Kumar
film editor
Zlatjan Čučkov
sound designer
Julij Zornik

featuring
Manca Košir

production
Casablanca
co-production
RTV Slovenija
co-funding
Slovenian Film Centre
distribution
Casablanca
sales
Casablanca

Casablanca
Igor Pediček
casablanca@siol.net

Nina Blažin (1980) graduated in film and TV directing from the AGRFT, University in Ljubljana. Beginning with Berlin Talent Campus 2006, she has attended many international film workshops—some recent ones are: Sources 2 2017, Script Circle 2017, Script & Pitch 2017, Interfilm Berlin, Eurodoc 2019 Novi Sad, Balkan Documentary Centre 2020. As a director, she looks for the pure Truth, pure Life. Her debut documentary How Much Do You Love Yourself? won the Best Documentary Award (FSF Portorož, 2018) and was selected for ZagrebDox 2019 as well as for Hot Docs’ ”Changing Faces of Europe” in 2019 in Toronto in collaboration with European Film Promotion. Nina is a member of the Directors’ Guild of Slovenia and EWA.

“I wanted to make a documentary about accepting death as part of our lives. Manca Košir was a big promotor of palliative care and her story opens doors into exploring departure. My personal story of loss is also in the film. As a director I wanted to give the viewer a place to explore the loss of their loved ones and accepting his own mortality. The film gives the viewer a place to ask: What will you do with the time you have left?”