>>>THE SEEKERS (Slovenia)
The night of the full moon in the eve of a job-quest workshop triggers the unusual behaviour of three participants. Jan, a jobless looser with a new identity, runs over an old lady, but instead of running away takes her home and unwillingly becomes involved in taking care of her. Middle-aged Ana, an enemployed divorcee who is forced to resume her piano career, lets refugee Mustafa jump into her car boot during a police raid. Pretty but uneducated Zala, who earns her daily bread working on a sexy phone hotline, decides to make her life meaningful after meeting alcoholic beggar woman Melanija.
The next morning the three job-seekers meet at a workshop organised by Janja, a free-lance psychologist who discovers such trainings financed by the state can be a goldmine, although she actually lacks proper training and empathy. In the transition period in Ljubljana within the fast changing system it is harder than ever to get a job for the the middle-aged, the unqualified and the unexperienced.
While looking for a new job, the seekers hope to come to terms with the dark secrets of their past. Bulimic Zala wants to get rid of her promiscuous youth which has brought her only misery, Jan is haunted by a bloody family tragedy and Ana has sacrificed her musical talent and her marriage to the altar of her suicidal son. The quest for a job also becomes a search for meaning and love.
The workshop is opened by a presentation of Janja's former student who has got a well-paid assistant manager job without any formal qualifications which awakens high hopes for the seekers. The three-week workshop period is a professional, emotional and exsistential trial for the seekers. Janja's lack of passion and interest in her job as well as in Vida result in double failure: her relationship breaks up and her workshop ends as a travesty: her prodigious student, the assumed assistant manager, has unknowingly become the partner of a business crook and ends in hospital beaten up by decieved clients.
Jan works as a janitor in the old lady's building but feels he isn't fit for any job. He wants more than he can achieve, he thinks that money will solve everything but even inheriting the old lady's fortune cannot help him find peace he longs for since childhood. Zala finds a satisfying career but can't overcome her chronic loneliness. Ana's healed by the brief encounter with Mustafa, helps him crossing the border and finds knew joy in music. Vida's quest for truth pays off and she dicovers her biological mother in Melanija.
Vedrana Grisogono Nemeš
A free-lance screenwriter and journalist living in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Graduated in English, German and comparative literature at the Philosophical faculty in Zagreb, Croatia and finished postgraduate studies at the Philosophical faculty in Ljubljana whith a master thesis on film adaptation of English novels.
For a number of years she worked as a journalist for Croatian and Slovenian magazines, mostly covering the media and culture. She also wrote film and television reviews and was a correspondent from the Cannes film festival.
Filmography:
A Woman's Tale (Ženska priča, TV Sarajevo, directed by Vojislav Milašević, 1987)
An Infernal plot (Peklenski načrt, directed by Anton Tomašič, TV Slovenija, 1991, screened at children's film festivals in Bratislava and Chicago)
Burning Blue (Nebo gori modro, directed by Jure Pervanje, TV Slovenija, 1997, a prize at the script contest of the Slovenian ministry of culture in 1994)
Flash (Blisk, 1.season of a satirical sitcom about the tabloid press, 15 episodes directed by Jure Pervanje, TV Slovenija, 2005).
The Seekers (Iskalci, TV Slovenija holds the rights, one of the four scripts chosen at the yearly script competition of the Slovenian national television)
