ODE TO THE POET
ODA PRESERNU



Slovenia, 2001, 100 min, color

Obscure poet Miha writes cheap commercials for a living. When an invitation to write an epic poem in honor of the bicentenary of the birth of the great Slovenian poet France Preseren is turned down by everyone else, Miha is finally asked to it. Petra, a young student, enters his life and offers to help him struggle with the great myth of Preseren. Miha is having difficulties with the poem, and as if that wasn't enough, he has two people breathing down his neck: Edo has a number of new commercials, and the State Secretary wants to be sure the celebration won't be sabotaged...

"Charming spoof of the frenzy surrounding the bicentennial celebration of real-life local bard France Preseren is the third sharp regional comedy in as many years from Ljubljana-based producer Daniel Hocevar ("Porno Film"). Pic's droll proceedings and Srebotnjak's defiant timidity invoke inevitable comparisons with vintage Woody Allen, yet the movie has an endearing freshness of its own."

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