Palestinian author Adania Shibli, a defining literary and intellectual voice of our time, joins philosopher Srećko Horvat for a conversation on literature, memory, violence, and the politics of narration.

Shibli is the author of the celebrated novels Touch, We Are All Equally Far from Love, and Minor Detail, the latter shortlisted for the International Booker Prize and widely praised for its unsettling exploration of historical erasure, colonial violence, and the fragile conditions of narration. Her writing moves through silence, absence, intimacy, and fear, revealing how occupation enters language, bodies, landscapes, and everyday life.

Alongside her literary work, Shibli has also developed an important academic and intellectual practice while teaching at Birzeit University in Palestine and engaging in questions of aesthetics, ethics, language, and coloniality across both fiction and critical thought. Her work persistently challenges the limits of representation, exploring fragmentation, narrative displacement, and the politics of form in relation to violence and history.

The discussion will focus on the themes emerging from Shibli’s writing: displacement, archival violence, invisibility, and the struggle over memory, language, and perception itself. Moving between literature and political thought, Shibli and Horvat will reflect on what storytelling can still make possible in a time marked by war, censorship, and mass destruction. 

With a new novel forthcoming this autumn, the Ljubljana conversation will also offer an unique opportunity to reflect on the new directions, questions, and forms emerging in Shibli’s latest work. 
 

Written by: Roger Nimier, Louis Malle, based on the novel by Noël Calef
Cinematography: Henri Decaë 
Music: Miles Davis 
Cast: Jeanne Moreau, Maurice Ronet, Lino Ventura, Yori Bertin, Florence Carala 
Production: Nouvelles Éditions de Films 

Julien and Florence devise an elaborate plan to murder her husband, who also happens to be Julien’s boss. They choose Friday afternoon for the killing, timing it to coincide with the closing of the offices in the city centre. At first, everything unfolds flawlessly: Julien commits the murder, disposes of the evidence, and makes his escape. But then, in a moment of fatal carelessness, he steps into the elevator, forgetting that every Friday evening the caretaker cuts the power to the building for the weekend. Trapped inside, Julien can only wait helplessly. Meanwhile, a young couple notices Julien’s fancy car, steals it, and races toward the outskirts of the city. As Julien struggles to free himself from the elevator, the increasingly distraught Florence wanders the nocturnal streets of Paris in search of him.

While Elevator to the Gallows is often associated with the dawn of the French New Wave, it remains both chronologically and stylistically “incompatible” with the movement’s defining aesthetic, despite its undeniable qualities and its extensive use of location shooting. The film functions instead as a cinematic bridge between the period of reflection on American noir and the bold formal experiments of early New Wave crime films (e.g., Godard’s Breathless). Undeniably, it also occupies a distinctive place in film history thanks to Miles Davis’s melancholic, improvised soundtrack.

The screening will be followed by a discussion with Assist. Prof. Primož Simončič from the Department of Forest Ecology, Slovenian Forestry Institute. The talk will be hosted by Damjan Vinter.

90-year-old Agatha forges a solitary existence on her ancestral farm, preserving heirloom seeds in her handmade universe. Practical and esoteric, her actions predate modern conveniences. Without a driver's license, cell phone, running water, or even a functioning landline Agatha's daily rituals form a vivid counterpoint to modern life.
 

Filmography
Agatha's Almanac, 2025

Producers: Marko Kumer, Mojca Pernat
Written by: Simon Horvat
Cinematography: Mitja Mlakar
Camera operators: Mitja Mlakar, Marko Kumer Murč, Katrin Weissler, Gregor Ravnik 
Editing: Ambrož Pivk
Production: Rusaalka, Film Factory 

The Drežnica goat is critically endangered. Along with this goat – the only indigenous Slovenian breed that thrives on the steep slopes of Northern Primorska – the nation’s biodiversity is at risk, as well as the ethnographic, cultural, and spiritual heritage of the local area. The extinction of the Drežnica goat would mark the end of a generations-long harmony between humans and nature, the cooperation of local communities, and an agrarian model that we now recognize as the foundation of sustainable development.
The film features never-before-seen documentary footage of the goats in their natural habitat on inaccessible Alpine cliffs, alongside the stories of locals who, using their own skills and the ancestral wisdom passed down through generations, strive to avert the inevitable.

Marko Kumer Murč is a director and producer specializing in documentary films and award-winning short films. He is the founder of the production companies EnaBanda and Rusaalka. The initiator of the Kratka Scena screenwriting workshop, he is also a co-founder of Prodorni producenti, a young producers’ association.

Filmography: 
Zelena utopija (Utopia in Green, 2013) 
Mesto svetlobe (City of Light, 2017) 
Jezik enakopravnosti (Language of Equality, 2019) 
Druga stran cevi (The Other Side of the Pipe, 2023)
Janko (2023) 
Drežniška koza in njeni ljudje (Drežnica Goat and Its People, 2025) 

Screenplay: Fabrice du Welz, Domenico La Porta
Cinematography : Manu Dacosse
Editing : Nico Leunen
Cast: Anthony Bajon (Paul Chartier), Alba Gaïa Bellugi (Jeanne »Gina« Ferrara), Alexis Manenti (Luis Catano), Sergi López (Marcel Dedieu), Laurent Lucas (Charles Hinkel), David Murgia (Didier Renard), Béatrice Dalle (Rita), Lubna Azabal (Mme Santos), Jackie Berroyer (Jack Dolman), Mélanie Doutey (Juge Remacle), Félix Maritaud (Roberto Santos)

Producers: Jean-Yves Roubin, Cassandre Warnauts, Manuel Chiche, Violaine Barbaroux
Production: Frakas Productions
E office@frakas.be
& The Jokers

Format: DCP, colour
Running time: 155'
Festivals, awards (selection):
Venice 2024, Sitges 2024, Lisbon 2024

World sales: WTF Films
E sales@wtfilms.fr
 

Du Welz’s latest work is a police film, a naturalistic fresco that takes us to the heart of the Sicilian community in Charleroi in the middle of the 1990s, largely inspired by the case of the paedophile serial killer Marc Dutroux.

Paul Chartier is an impulsive young police recruit with a troubled past – his father was a convict and his mother a prostitute. But he buried those memories long ago. Now he navigates deftly between his professional ambitions and the extended Sicilian family he is preparing to marry into. When two girls go missing, the idealistic Paul is assigned to “Maldoror”. This secret unit has been set up to monitor a dangerous sex offender. When the operation fails, fed up with the limits of the legal system and increasingly obsessed with the case which he is sure is a part of something much larger, Chartier embarks on a solitary hunt to bring down the culprits.

Fabrice du WelzBorn in 1972 in Belgium. Du Welz studied at the Conservatory of Dramatic Arts in Liège and at INSAS, a film school in Brussels. In the 1990s he directed many Super 8 films and wrote humorous sequences for Canal +. He rose to prominence already with his 1999 short, A Wonderful Love. His feature debut, The Ordeal, screened at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.
 

Filmography (selection)
2004 Calvaire (The Ordeal)
2008 Vinyan
2014 Alléluia (Alleluia)
2016 Message from the King
2019 Adoration
2024 La Passion selon Béatrice (The Passion According to Béatrice)
2024 Maldoror 

Director of photography: Miran Zupanič 
Editing: Miran Zupanič
Sound design: Boštjan Kačičnik
Producer: Boštjan Ikovic, Arsmedia 
Co-producers: Zavod Gora Rocka, Teleking, Zvokarna, MB Grip 

Premiere of a Slovenian documentary film. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the director and the film crew.

Every year, at the remote Šentviška Gora Plateau in the Tolmin municipality, thousands of festival-goers gather at the end of June, drawn by music and celebration. For three days, more than 350 locals organize the Gora Rocka festival, a charity event that, over its twenty-one-year history, has grown from modest beginnings into a core part of the region’s identity. Through the highlights of performances by bands such as Big Foot Mama, Vlado Kreslin in Mali Bogovi, Magnifico, MRFY, Društvo Mrtvih Pesnikov, Hamo & Tribute 2 Love, S.A.R.S., Tabu, Fehtarji, Orlek, Fed Horses, Delta Riff, Agan, Ansambl Ikebane, Mačji Kwt, Pižoni, Smacked, Vazz Live, Killing Klub, Brkovi, Kvartet Strmole, and Vokalna Skupina Snežet with folk musicians, we get to know the festival’s organizers – a group of dedicated locals who have built more than just a music event. Gora Rocka has become a meeting point of rural and urban culture, a catalyst for social cohesion, a space where people who might never otherwise cross paths come together, and a spark for relationships that would not form anywhere else.

In an era dominated by individualism, the festival embodies a collective spirit, prompting its organizers to ask themselves whether they can withstand the pressures of time and continue nurturing a project that has grown far beyond them.

V sodelovanju s Slovenskim filmskim centrom

Written by: Metod Pevec, Olga Michalik
Co-writer: Vladimir Milošević 
Producer: Danijel Hočevar
Director of Photography: Metod Pevec
Camera Operators: Dejan Ulaga, Gaja Naja Rojec
Editing: Olga Michalik
Co-editing: Ivo Trajkov
Colorist: Emil Svetlik
Sound Designer: Julij Zornik

Production: Vertigo Ljubljana
In co-production with: RTV Slovenija
In cooperation with: FS Viba film
Financial support: Slovenian Film Centre, Public Agency of the Republic of Slovenia

A director and a psychiatrist visit the central Slovenian prison in Dob. The director believes the place also contains locked up stories, while the psychiatrist believes that, through his psychodrama method, he can create a liberating creative space for the inmates and offer them a perspective for the future. A liberated zone within a closed facility?

“All crimes are welcome." Words such as these were also uttered during auditions at Slovenia’s main prison in Dob. Most of the inmates who signed up for the year and a half long experiment with a psychiatrist and a film camera had been convicted of the most serious offences: drug trafficking, migrant smuggling, armed robbery, sexual offences, and murder.
In lengthy psychodrama sessions, this group of very different inmates retraced their journey from childhood to an uncertain future after serving their sentences. It turns out that a criminal identity is not a trivial matter, as it often appears in true-crime reporting; nor can it be pinned on a single person. At least the father and son are to blame, but others and other factors are implicated as well. Sentenced to 30, 20, 17, 15… a total of 105 years in prison, sooner or later they hit existential rock bottom. There is no money, no gangster pride, no friendship; there is so little, or nothing, that a surprising need for spirituality and creativity emerges. That was where we met.
 

Metod Pevec, born in 1958 in Ljubljana, is an established film director, screenwriter, writer, and actor. He has produced a prolific body of work in both fiction and documentary film, most notably Pod njenim oknom (fiction film, 2003), Lahko noč, gospodična (fiction film, 2011), Aleksandrinke (documentary, 2011), Vaje v objemu (fiction film, 2012), Dom (documentary, 2015), and Jaz sem Frenk (fiction film, 2019).
He is the recipient of the Golden Arena Award for Best Director at the Pula Film Festival in 2011 and 2020, for the films Lahko noč, gospodična and Jaz sem Frenk, respectively, as well as several Vesna Awards at the Slovenian Film Festival, including Best Director for Vaje v objemu and Best Documentary Film for Aleksandrinke and Dom (2011, 2015). For his achievements in directing, he received the 2013 Prešeren Fund Award, Slovenia’s highest cultural honour.

Director of photography: Miran Zupanič 
Editing: Miran Zupanič
Sound design: Boštjan Kačičnik
Producer: Boštjan Ikovic, Arsmedia 
Co-producers: Zavod Gora Rocka, Teleking, Zvokarna, MB Grip 

Premiere of a Slovenian documentary film. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the director and the film crew.

Every year, at the remote Šentviška Gora Plateau in the Tolmin municipality, thousands of festival-goers gather at the end of June, drawn by music and celebration. For three days, more than 350 locals organize the Gora Rocka festival, a charity event that, over its twenty-one-year history, has grown from modest beginnings into a core part of the region’s identity. Through the highlights of performances by bands such as Big Foot Mama, Vlado Kreslin in Mali Bogovi, Magnifico, MRFY, Društvo Mrtvih Pesnikov, Hamo & Tribute 2 Love, S.A.R.S., Tabu, Fehtarji, Orlek, Fed Horses, Delta Riff, Agan, Ansambl Ikebane, Mačji Kwt, Pižoni, Smacked, Vazz Live, Killing Klub, Brkovi, Kvartet Strmole, and Vokalna Skupina Snežet with folk musicians, we get to know the festival’s organizers – a group of dedicated locals who have built more than just a music event. Gora Rocka has become a meeting point of rural and urban culture, a catalyst for social cohesion, a space where people who might never otherwise cross paths come together, and a spark for relationships that would not form anywhere else.

In an era dominated by individualism, the festival embodies a collective spirit, prompting its organizers to ask themselves whether they can withstand the pressures of time and continue nurturing a project that has grown far beyond them.

V sodelovanju s Slovenskim filmskim centrom

Screenplay: Miha Zbašnik, Gregor Andolšek, Marko Bratuš 
Cinematography: Miloš Srdić 
Music:  Blaž Gracar
Production Designer: Neža Zinajić
Costume Designer: : Urška Recer
Editing: Anže Verdel
Cast:​​​​​​​ Stane Tomazin, Gregor Čušin, Uroš Smolej, Tijana Zinajić, Matej Puc, Tjaša Železnik, Maša Derganc, Nenad Tokalić, Mojca Partljič, Jernej Kogovšek, Boris Cavazza, Janez Škof, Gojmir Lešnjak 
Production: Temporama
Co-production: RTV Slovenija, A Atalanta, 001, Nuframe 
Distribution: Gustav film 

This Is a Robbery! is a crime comedy loosely based on a true story. Using absurdist comedy and black humour, the film deals with bureaucracy, insurance companies, and that all-too-familiar feeling of helplessness – the moment when you're nineteenth in line and realize you’ve become just a number.

Rajko (Stane Tomazin) is a professional magician who broke his arm during one of his shows. But his insurance company Tangenta is unwilling to pay him the insurance benefits due to a trivial bureaucratic error. Outraged by the injustice, he is defended only by the kind-hearted insurance agent Marcel (Gregor Čušin) who tries to help by getting Rajko in the room with the Tangenta’s CEO himself. But the meeting goes sour as Marcel impulsively kidnaps the CEO, much to Rajko’s surprise, and together they soon find themselves on the run. This Is a Robbery! is an absurd crime comedy about bureaucratic crimes, loss of trust in the system, and people who lose faith in themselves in their search for justice. The biggest robbery is the one that no one notices, even though it happens right before everyone's eyes.

Gregor Andolšek – filmography (selection)
Srečna Mladina (2004; short)
Stanje šoka (2011)
Zgodbe iz sekreta (2014)
Tunel (2017; short)
Čao Portorož ~ Ljubavnik (2020)