Gravehopping

In rural Slovenia, hangdog Bakovic is a professional funeral orator whose waywardly metaphysical speeches sometimes sail right over the heads of his audience. What with his widowed father’s suicide attempts, a frustrated love-life and a best mate who’s just attached chariot-style blades to the wheels of his Cinquecento, he has a lot on his mind – as indeed does this deceptively whimsical affair. Just when it seems it’s settled for a catalogue of quirkiness, Cvitkovic’s film reveals the dark impulses so close to the surface of normality. A resonant, oblique, cumulatively haunting statement from a region scarred by conflict.