The short film explores a decades-long family rift and an attempt at reconciliation within a family that was torn apart in 1947, when a state border divided the population of the Gorizia region.
The story is set in motion by two young artists, Martina from Gorizia and her peer Mark from Ljubljana, who are related but had never met before. They connected through social media and are now jointly organizing a reunion between Mark’s grandfather Boris and Martina’s grandmother Giulia, Boris’s niece. A family that had been divided for many years is thus reunited by the third generation of descendants—the one no longer burdened by cultural, linguistic, and ideological barriers.
Maja Weiss graduated from the Ljubljana Film Academy AGRFT. She is the first Slovenian female film director to direct a full-length fiction film for cinema, titled "Guardian of the Frontier." Her film received several awards, including the Manfred Salzgeber Award for the most innovative European film at the 2002 Berlinale (Panorama) and a nomination for European Discovery at the 2002 European Film Awards (EFA). Maja Weiss' extensive filmography includes over 40 films screened at more than 150 festivals worldwide. She is also recognized as one of the most prominent Slovenian documentary filmmakers.
Her documentaries have been honoured at various prestigious film festivals, including DOK Leipzig and IDFA (nomination), Durban, Zaragoza, Rotterdam, Krakow, and Telluride. In 2020, she was presented with a lifetime achievement award for her contributions to documentaries at the DocuDok Maribor Documentary Film Festival.
“The film speaks about bridges, about Slovenian and Italian identity, and about generations marked by division, yet also by a desire to overcome differences and achieve family reconciliation. Although the film includes the bitter line that “Europe is a mess,” the overall narrative conveys a message of hope, optimism, and the possibility of a shared future.”
Bela Film was established in 1998 and has since become one of Slovenia's leading production companies. Its track record include over 35 titles, primarily art-house feature films, creative documentaries, and shorts that have been presented at numerous festivals, including Berlinale, Cannes, Clermont-Ferrand, and IDFA. Company is led by Ida Weiss (ACE, EAVE, EWA, and EFA member). Her recent productions include the short films "Around The Corner" (featured in over thirty festivals, including Uppsala SFF, 2023) and "Sports Day" (Premiers Plans d'Angers, 2024), as well as the children's feature film "Beanie" (featured in over thirty festivals, including Cinekid 2022, with more than 120,000 cinema admissions in Slovenia, Croatia, Slovakia, and Luxembourg).