Hidden People / Skriti ljudje

Diagonale looks beyond Graz toward Portorož and the Festival of Slovenian Film! This new collaboration will see a current film travel abroad to a partner festival each year, fostering exchange and strengthening ties between the two countries. Special thanks to Nataša Bučar of the Slovenian Film Centre.

Two men wake up hungover and handcuffed together on a riverbank near Ljubljana. Sig, an Icelandic tourist, is suffering from memory loss and cannot remember how he ended up in Slovenia — or with his new friend Guti. Fortunately, his local ally soon proves to be a great help. The result is an offbeat Slovenian buddy movie poised between absurdity and seriousness, farce and fairy tale.

What exactly happened to Guti and Sig the night before is only revealed gradually over the course of the film. On this particular morning, however, they find themselves waking up handcuffed together on a riverbank. The scrawny Guti and the imposing Sig make for an unlikely pair, perfectly suited to a buddy movie in which a friendship for life is forged. Yet in Hidden People, Slovenian director Miha Hočevar does not stage a typically American chain-gang escape, but rather a gently toned Slovenian comedy.

Since Sig suffers from memory loss and cannot remember why he came from Iceland to Slovenia or where his passport has gone, he stays on with his new pal even after Guti frees him from the handcuffs, joining Guti and his girlfriend, who live nearby. As calmly as the river flows here, events unfold at an equally leisurely pace: the handcuff problem may be solved more quickly than the trouble with the fascist neighbour, but there is still plenty of time to build an illegal raft together — the debt-ridden Guti has lost his house to the bank and needs a new place to live — and even for Sig to experience a tender romance.

Hočevar, who is also credited as co-writer, takes his time with this story, which moves between absurdity and seriousness, farce and fairy tale, leaving ample room for seemingly incidental details: a trip into the mountains, a botched funeral, and songs about life and love. And those songs are sung in both Slovenia and Iceland alike.