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„Chicory and Coffee“


kikiriki

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I'm considering to attend The Cinequest to give a better start to Chicory:-) (Though I'm a little concerned. I haven't been more than 500km from my home town, and San Jose is exactly on the opposite side of the world- as far from home as possible. :-( )

Anybody from the list from that area? (San Francisco, San Jose?) Anybody planning to attend the festival?

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just a little update, to keep your guys informed :-)

 

Today will be the world premiere of Chicory at the Cinequest festival in San Jose (CA). I won't be there personally so If some of you will be at the screening I would really appreciate if you could tell me your opinion and the reaction of the audience! In March Chicory will be shown on 3 festivals (Atlanta USA, and two festivals in Spain).

 

I finally manage to collect enough courage to present the film at the CGtalk: http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php...54&t=734766. There you will also find a link to the HD version of the trailer on the YouTube. In the portfolio section you will also find a HD version of good old Perk animation. (HD versions are allwas fine for animators since they can see many errors and mistakes :-) )

 

As always! Your comments and support will be very appreciated! :-)

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Thank you guys! You are the best :-)

 

It looks fabulous! Have a great visit in the US of A.

 

Unfortunately- It's a little to far for me :-(

And a little too expensive. Festivals from US of A doesn't cover any expenses for the authors, so I would need to pay for plane and hotel from my own pocket. Which is a little to much for me at the moment.

 

You might think about opening up the store on your website?

 

The store for the customers from Slovenia is already open (see the Slovenian part of the webpage). But it's way too complicated to sell T-shirts to outside of Slovenia. So I set up a store on Cafepres. I ordered couple my own product- just to check out the quality and I was shocked. The quality of T-shirts from the Cafepres cannot match to those I got from my local supplier. See the comparison: http://bugbrain.no-ip.org/ftp/bbguest/cafepres.jpg I was using the same image for both T-shirts. I cannot sell such T-shirts, so I closed my store at the Cafepres and I'm looking for another solution. (Of course Ken, since you are a part of the team, I will send you one for free :-) )

 

Perhaps a book to follow?

I doubt :-) But I'm planning to publish a DVD someday which will include small booklet about "making of".

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Today will be the world premiere of Chicory at the Cinequest festival in San Jose (CA). I won't be there personally so If some of you will be at the screening I would really appreciate if you could tell me your opinion and the reaction of the audience!

 

I will definitely be going to the Cinequest Festival & most especially to see your film. I have been a long time admirer of your work and this looks exceptionally top notch. Has an amazing appeal

 

I hope to go see it tonight (9:30 pm) for the premiere - that's kind of late for us old folk (unfortunately got up way too early today) - and there is a good possibility of a heavy wind/rainstorm - but if I don't see it tonight - I will definitely go see it either Sat 2/28 at 4:30pm or Tues Mar 3 at 5:00pm

 

It will be very hard for me to be unbiased and objective about this - as I already know that I will love it ... unless of course Ken Heslip messed something up (hee hee...kidding of course).

 

I wish you all the success you deserve!

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I hope to go see it tonight (9:30 pm) for the premiere - that's kind of late for us old folk (unfortunately got up way too early today)

 

Really?!? That's GREAT! :-)

Please tell me what do you think and about the reaction of the audience! I'm specially interested if it will be hard to follow the story because of the (strange) language and Subtitles. I have been told that big nations are not used to read subtitles- that subtitles could seriously interrupt the viewers experience. So based on your opinion (and observation) I will consider if I need to make an English version of the film.

 

You should try 3D World too.

 

Yes I know... I will have to be more active promoting the film in the future (nowadays it's not an art to make a good movie, it's an art to sell it!)

 

I suppose it will be about a year before it's been to all the festivals and we can see the whole thing?

 

Yes- about a year.

But while I was uploading the trailer on the YouTube I noticed an option "Private Screening". If I understand it right I could make a list of (up to) 25 people and invite them on private screening. I will probably do that soon (since this is not against the Festival regulation).

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I cannot sell such T-shirts, so I closed my store at the Cafepres and I'm looking for another solution. (Of course Ken, since you are a part of the team, I will send you one for free :-) )

 

I wasn't angling for a T-shirt, but since you're offering. ;)

It's a shame about Cafepress. Here's some others I found:

http://www.spreadshirt.com

http://www.zazzle.com/

http://www.printfection.com/

The last one seems to be the best from reviews.

It will be very hard for me to be unbiased and objective about this - as I already know that I will love it ... unless of course Ken Heslip messed something up (hee hee...kidding of course).

 

Any mistakes were weeded well out in the 1099th revision of the short! :D;)

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I googled "Chicory and Coffee Animation". Anything I could read anywhere about it is positively GLOWING. People are going through the roof over this apparently. I can't WAIT to see this.

 

Is getting one of those "private showing invitations" on youtube going to be like finding the golden ticket in a Willy Wonka chocolate bar? ;) I hope there is an opportunity to see it. I never get to see cool stuff like this in my area... without driving really far and I hate to travel... that is why I watch movies. ;) Ever since seeing the first rendered stills of this, I knew this thing was going to blow peoples socks clean off their feet.

 

-vern

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Wohoo! You got frontpage on CGTalk! Well deserved Dusan. I wish you the best of luck

 

Oh my god!

 

An amazing, mind blowing animated short... winning awards... created using Animation:Master... On the front page of CGTalk... is that... kind of... like a vindication? A "go get stuffed" to the the people who have attacked AM in the past? Or is it just me? It seems to me now that anyone who would say one tiny word in the negative about AM on any other forum won't have much room to talk after this. The proof is in the pudding. There is no argument. There is no more discussion about what AM is capable of.

 

Ah... a sigh of contentment. Put all those naysayers in their place.

 

Dusan you make all of us proud. You elevate the whole AM community through your success. You have not only done what so many of us strive for when we bought AM but you have earned the critical acclaim and awards as well. I finally watched the trailer and would put it on the same level or even beyond any "big budget" studio production. It's breathtaking and if the whole animation is as good (I have no doubts) it is deserving of every award and all the praise it receives.

 

WoooHooo!

 

-vern

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Wohoo! You got frontpage on CGTalk! Well deserved Dusan. I wish you the best of luck

 

Yes, thank you guys for giving me a good push for a good start. I needed that good start, otherwise "Chicory" would be lost among all those great works there! Thanks again! :-)

 

I don't know how yesterdays premiere went (Nancy were you there?), but suppose it was good since I allready got 3 invitations for the festivals in my E-mail this morning :-)

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On the front page of CGTalk... is that... kind of... like a vindication?

 

Thank you Vern, you are too kind... But If I recall correctly I'm not the first A:M at the front page of CGtalk. I can remember at least Joe Williamsen and of course Jeff Lew with his killer Bean (I also thik Jim Talbot got there...)

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I don't know how yesterdays premiere went (Nancy were you there?), but suppose it was good since I allready got 3 invitations for the festivals in my E-mail this morning :-)

 

Yes I was there...I'm so very glad I went. It was WONDERFUL!!! OF course! Just lovely, plain lovely - probably the most beautifully, perfectly done of all the entries - the sound quality, poem/song was also exquisite.

 

In regards to your questions about the subtitles - Your subtitles worked, and were very readable & beautifully done. This was in contrast to other entries, whose subtitles were truly impossible to read. It seemed as if no thought had been given to contrast of subtitles against the imagery. I & my husband did not find your subtitles distracting at all. And I don't think educated American audiences (ie those who go to film festivals, as opposed to general dumbed down Hollywood movies) have any problem with subtitles (as long as they are readable). In my opinion, the beautiful tonality of the Slovenian language (Hungarian? Slavic? Yugoslavic?) added to the experience. I am almost positive that I would prefer the subtitles over an English voiced version - unless maybe? perhaps? the narrator/singer had the same rich Slovenian accent.

 

It was hard for me to get a read on the audience's reaction - as most - 100-150? people, an older crowd than I would have expected (mostly 35+), 60-40 split male/female, were in back of me - but there was definite applause at the end. My guess would be that "Chicory" was in the top 3 of the group that I viewed. I loved seeing your name, Ken What's-his-name, & Animation Master's name in the credits. I sure whooped it up with the applause.

 

The audience seemed to respond to the comedic entries the most - ie with audible laughter. There were a couple of stop-mo, 1 cute, 1 artsy crude, and one experimental with the most annoying sound track that was truly truly AWFUL - I would have rated it a minus 10 (looked like something I might have done)

 

There were 2 dark, documentary type entries, in which the message/sound track/subtitles were more important than the visuals - usually done via taking video clips and using posterizing filters. The last film - "Slaves" was the most hard hitting, as it dealt with women and children being abducted in Sudan. The sound track (and subtitled) was actual interviews of 2 children, age 5 and 9 and the atrocities they endured - it could have been a radio piece - but the message was horrifyingly powerful - and to use the juxtaposition of crude animation - probably made the message even more powerful, than if they had used real footage.

 

Many Congratulations Dusan! I was honored to be able to be there.

 

(ps - I believe I have already seen one of the entries - "Our Wonderful Nature" on youtube perhaps? - so not sure if it got leaked?)

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Nancy, thank you very much for your exhaustive report :-) I really appreciate it!

 

the beautiful tonality of the Slovenian language (Hungarian? Slavic? Yugoslavic?) added to the experience. I am almost positive that I would prefer the subtitles over an English voiced version - unless maybe? perhaps? the narrator/singer had the same rich Slovenian accent.

 

Thank you for noticing that! That was the main reason why I insisted in the original version!

Slovenia is a very small country (only 2 million residents) and we have our own language, which is quite different from other Slavic languages. But this particular poem was made in specific Slovenian dialect, which is spoken only by a couple of thousand people near the Italian border. Mostly by the elders that lives in the willages near the border. (Many of Slovenians doesn't understand half of the words, so they need to read the English subtitles to understand it :-)). But sound of this language is so soft, and gentle and funny at the same time... I'm glad you could feel that even if you don't understand a word! It's one of those language which will be forgotten in a generation or two... it's really pity.

 

 

It was hard for me to get a read on the audience's reaction - as most - 100-150? people, an older crowd than I would have expected (mostly 35+), 60-40 split male/female, were in back of me - but there was definite applause at the end. My guess would be that "Chicory" was in the top 3 of the group that I viewed. I loved seeing your name,

 

Great! Though I expected much bigger audience in the festival like that! We have our own animation festival here in Ljubljana (Animateka) which is considered as a very small (and not very important) festival. But it attracts about 300 people on each screening.

 

 

Ken What's-his-name, & Animation Master's name in the credits. I sure whooped it up with the applause.

 

Yeea... I couldn't remember Ken's surname when I wrote the credits, so I wrote "Ken What's-his-name". But I'm sure he doesn't resent it! The main thing is that We know who he is! :-)

 

 

"Slaves" was the most hard hitting, as it dealt with women and children being abducted in Sudan. The sound track (and subtitled) was actual interviews of 2 children, age 5 and 9 and the atrocities they endured - it could have been a radio piece - but the message was horrifyingly powerful - and to use the juxtaposition of crude animation - probably made the message even more powerful, than if they had used real footage.

 

Uf, yeah... animated war documentaries are very popular over the last couple of years (Like "Waltz with Bashir"). It's hard to compete with stories like that :-(

 

 

(ps - I believe I have already seen one of the entries - "Our Wonderful Nature" on youtube perhaps? - so not sure if it got leaked?)

 

Yes, I saw it too. It has won the "Aniboom.com" competition and it all around the Internet in it's full size for quite some time. I'm not sure about that specific festival (Cinequest) but this is against of the rules of most of the big festivals.

 

Nancy, thank you again!

 

P.S. Would you accept the award instead of me if I win? :-)

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It's one of those language which will be forgotten in a generation or two... it's really pity.

Ah that is very sad. My father's generation is probably the last to speak Ladino fluently - a mixture of ancient Spanish and Hebrew - ie pre-inquisition (1492) with splashes of post-diaspora Greek, Turk, Italian influences.

Great! Though I expected much bigger audience in the festival like that!

It was probably mostly due to the time of day of the showing - 9:30pm, that reduced the size of the audience, as it was on a workday, school night. There's still the Saturday (4:30 pm) and Tuesday (5:00pm) showings. And there were other films (full length) being shown in other places. There's over 200 screenings. Many of the geeks/nerds/students of San Jose/Silicon Valley were home asleep or working late or partying at the clubs. The week-end should be better.

 

It would probably be a different story up in San Francisco (about 35-40 minutes away), as there would be a higher percentage of animated shorts film festival art patron enthusiasts.

 

P.S. Would you accept the award instead of me if I win? :-)

 

Are you kidding??? Of course! I would be thrillled to accept the award for you !!! I don't know when the award ceremony is ? Have they let you know when that would be? Is it at the last screening on Tuesday? You must write what you would like me to say on your behalf, or else I just might end up singing a song or 2 or doing a little dance or fainting or telling dirty jokes or ...

 

EDIT: Just found out that the closing night gala & awards ceremony is Sunday Mar 8 (7:30 pm), and it includes the premiere screening of "The Nature of Existence" - which sounds terrific, and like something I definitely would be interested in seeing.

Edited by NancyGormezano
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Thank you for noticing that! That was the main reason why I insisted in the original version!

Slovenia is a very small country (only 2 million residents) and we have our own language, which is quite different from other Slavic languages. But this particular poem was made in specific Slovenian dialect, which is spoken only by a couple of thousand people near the Italian border. Mostly by the elders that lives in the willages near the border. (Many of Slovenians doesn't understand half of the words, so they need to read the English subtitles to understand it :-)). But sound of this language is so soft, and gentle and funny at the same time... I'm glad you could feel that even if you don't understand a word! It's one of those language which will be forgotten in a generation or two... it's really pity.

 

That your film captures the language and times of these people of Slovenia as powerfully as it does alone would make it great. This would be just as true if 'Chicory and Coffee' never left the borders of Slovenia. But having escaped from that small region we all can share in part what it means to be Solvenian.

 

Isn't it wonderful how language, sound and imagery can all come together to capture such things.

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Are you kidding??? Of course! I would be thrillled to accept the award for you !!! I don't know when the award ceremony is ? Have they let you know when that would be? Is it at the last screening on Tuesday? You must write what you would like me to say on your behalf, or else I just might end up singing a song or 2 or doing a little dance or fainting or telling dirty jokes or ...

 

EDIT: Just found out that the closing night gala & awards ceremony is Sunday Mar 8 (7:30 pm), and it includes the premiere screening of "The Nature of Existence" - which sounds terrific, and like something I definitely would be interested in seeing.

 

Yes, of course I meant it! :-)

But I'm kind of superstitious so we won't mentioned this until it's happen (IF(!!!) it's happen) :-)

 

Btw., I don't know if you saw the Introductory performance of Iztok Mlakar (author of the poem) before the opening of the film on my Website. Translation is not very good (my bad) and it doesn't quite catches the essence of his performance, but it's worth to see anyway (as far as I know this is the only time that Iztok Mlakar has been caught on the camera :-)) You could also see it on You tube:

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You could also see it on You tube:

 

Everyone interested in filmmaking best be clicking on that link.

 

That was really wonderful introduction Dusan.

I'm speachless.

 

Did the festival showings include a narrative or film the lead in by Iztok Mlakar or is that somehow incorporated into the film?

The lead in alone is priceless. One can hardly wait to see the film.

 

If you keep giving us little doses of 'Chicory and Coffee' like this you'll have us hooked for years.

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Oh good grief! Another tantalizing sample of this animation! It's driving me CRAZY to see it. Just a few seconds of it and I'm dying for more. That whole scene of the door opening... the walking in... just a few short seconds... and so much personality and character. The animation "quality" is one thing but it's the ACTING that keeps jumping out for me from the small samples I see.

 

I loved listening to Iztok Mlakar. Hearing that little introduction (well, reading the subtitles anyway) makes me want to take some night classes to learn the language! I doubt very much that I could find a class like that around here or get training CD's from "The Roseta Stone". ;) My brother knows the guys who run Roseta Stone... maybe I can get them to do a series for... what is it? Slovenian? Quickly before it's lost.

 

Dusan, up until you explained the history of the country and the language I would have thought you SHOULD do a "dubbed" version. Now... forget about that. The language itself is part of the story. It should never be dubbed. Remember when they dubbed Mel Gibson in the original "Mad Max"? Ick. Blech. Yuck.

 

-vern

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I’m happy that you like Iztok! I’m his big fan. I was sure there is so much lost in translation that no one would understand the message or care about this video!

 

Iztok is indeed one of the Slovenian national treasures! I have really hard time to pick one of his songs for my animation. There are so many of them with great stories that could make you laugh and cry at the same time. Iztok is a very strange man. He sells enormous amounts of his CD without any publicity! And yet he refuses to appear on TV (I think that my video from FSF is the only video of him), he doesn't even have a poster for his concerts! And I could tell you about his concerts! He could easily fill the full stadium, but yet, he only has one small concert approx. once a month in some small pub. He doesn't allow more than 30 people on his concerts (he says that he cannot make a connection with more than 30 people) , so to be on his concert is like to win a lottery ticket! :-)

 

I was happy to see one of his concerts and I can say that I never saw anything so good in all aspects! He's a great actor, a great musician and a top-notch stand-up comedian in one person. I'm really happy that during the process of working on Chicory, we became friends. We are already preparing a lot bigger project together... but psssst... that's a secret :-)

 

P.S. And... I'm actually not so skinny as I'm on the video. Once or twice a year I go to a 20-days of fasting (I drink only 2dcl of fresh fruit juice a day and a lot of water) and in that time Im losing about 15kg. This is filmed right after my last fasting. :-)

 

P.P.S. Nancy, did you see any posters for „Chicory“ at the Cinequest? I sent about 10 of them, but at the very last moment so I might be too late...

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I'm actually not so skinny as I'm on the video. Once or twice a year I go to a 20-days of fasting (I drink only 2dcl of fresh fruit juice a day and a lot of water) and in that time Im losing about 15kg.

My goodness - and I thought going to Africa was an eccentric way of getting skinny?!

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P.P.S. Nancy, did you see any posters for „Chicory“ at the Cinequest? I sent about 10 of them, but at the very last moment so I might be too late...

 

No - but I really wasn't looking for them - There were a smattering of posters, brochures on tables - but I didn't pay much attention. 10 is not a big number - they could have been gone?

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My heartiest congratulations Dusan,

 

'Chicory & Coffee' is not only the best work yet done with Hash A:M. but also it's the first to get so much of recognition from the mainstream film festivals. We all know what you and your team have gone through to make this masterpiece.

 

'Chicory & Coffee' and you will remain as a true inspiration for all the future independent animation filmmakers.

 

I'm glad Hash Inc. has a special place in this forum for 'Chicory & Coffee', the work behind it, and interviews of the crew.

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What a great 'read' it has been to reread this thread...from the humble beginnings, and 2 years later to see your film in full bloom. Congratulations Dusan! I look forward to seeing it in full myself.

 

EDIT: It sure would be nice to get our hands on that 'environment' shader... How do we contact Yves now-a-days?

 

Update: For more information about Yves Poissant Environment Shader follow this link.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Hi Rodney!

 

Thank you for your interest! :-)

 

For more informations about screenings of Chicory on the Festivals, please check my Website: www.bugbrain.com/chicory

But generaly: at this moment "Chicory" is showing at the "Short Film Corner" in Cannes, in a day or two it will be screened at the San Joaquin Film Festival. Next month we will go to the Toronto (World Wide Short Film Fest) and right after that to the Edinbourgh Film Festival.

Those are only the festivals that will screen the animation from 35mm film. At the same time a couple of smaller festivals (like "Asterfest" Macedonia, "festival 600" Ljubljana) will screen it from the DVD or BetaSP.

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I could have seen it at the Atlanta Film Festival! Sorry I missed it! In fact, this year I missed the whole thing. I have to say though, your film would have been plenty of motivation to make a special effort to attend the festival this year. I should have checked the schedule on your website earlier. I'll be kicking myself for quite a while. (Thump!...Ow!...Thump!...Ow!...)

 

Congratulations on your success so far!

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  • 3 months later...

Hi Guys! Friendly bunch as always! Thank you very much :-)

 

And I need to give a specially BIG "THANKS" to Tony Iversen. He suggested this festival, he's intervened with the festival selector, when I missed a deadline, he was a great promoter of my film... heck... he was even in projection room when the film was screened! :-) So I guess with a support like that it would be strange if I wouldn't get that award! :-) So, Tony, Thank you once again.

 

Chicory is quite successful in the Festival Circuit. So far it was screened on more than 40 festivals and won 9 awards (and one special jury mention). I even got 8(!) offers for distribution. Right now I'm finishing the negotiation with one of the biggest distributers of short films.. So this chapter will be soon over, so I need to concentrate on the next project!

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Congratulations on finding a distributer and of course for all the awards that Chicory is picking up along the way!

I am now intrigued by your next project. Do you have something in mind already?

 

Nothing specific yet. But it will probably be a Feature Animation.

I have a drawer full of scripts and ideas for films which I would like to make. I have enough material for next couple of lives! :-)

Most of the ideas are to complex for our small studio. I learned a lot on "Chicory"- and I'm not sure if I will be able to raise enough money to hire a capable and big crew to make this ideas alive. So I will probably spend another couple of months trying to make one of those ideas simple enough to be able to make it with small screw. I was very impressed by "Sita Sings Blues" or Films by "king of Indie Animation" Bill Plypton... Probably something like that. It will probablly be 2D animation.

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  • 2 weeks later...

My plan was to show the film on couple of Festivals and after that release the whole Film on YouTube to be available for everyone to watch. But film was quite successful at the festival and couple a days ago I even signed a contract with world distributor! Unfortunately that means that I'm not allowed to show my film on YouTube anytime soon.

 

Since I'm getting quite a few requests from people who would like to see the film, I decided to make a compromise. YouTube have a special feature with which you can "hide" your film from public view and show it only to the invited ones (actually to 25 YouTube users listed as your "friends"). So if you really want to see the film, please:

-make a YouTube account (if you don't have one already)

-then go to my account ( www.youtube.com/user/bigbugbrain )

-and set me as a "friend".

-After I will get your invitation to become "Friends" I will send you an invitation to see my film which will appear in "Inbox" of your YouTube account.

 

P.S. One of the "side effects" of getting a world distributor was, that we Synchronised the Film to English. Of course the English version is not as good as Slovenian (not only that lip sync doesn't match perfectly, a lot of the softness and humor of the original version was lost during translation. But anyway- only couple of lucky bastards that actually speaks Slovene can enjoy the original- the others will probably like this English version much more). You can watch the English "Trailer" at:

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