What is the dominant feeling of our current era? Disquiet, fear of the future, boundlessly amorphous flows, a nostalgia for the simpler things of the past? Timely, perpetually shifting and oddly comforting, this first solo directorial work by editor and cinematographer Iva Kraljević seeks to tap into the mood of the zeitgeist and translates it into pure cinema, creating a free-flowing essay where form and content gently intertwine. Taking its bearings from W. G. Sebald, Naomi Klein and Robert McFarlane while possessing a wit and lyrical timbre all of its own, the onscreen text draws shimmering lines between dream, memory, historical event and present atrocity and the perpetual solace of nature, as archive footage and home movies bleed into new 16 mm images, superimpositions abound and photographs and animation infect the frame. Wood and water, rock and fire, mushroom clouds, again and again; if what we excrete comes back to consume us, at least here we’ve been fed a hearty meal.

James Lattimer

Who has not seen them – films about various training opportunities and degree programmes produced by the official career guidance service? It was rare in this context, however, to come across such high-quality productions as this information film about the rare craft of leather goods making. Nothing here recalls the dusty images of ordinary career promotion films: perfect lighting and professional 35mm stock, an enthusiastic staff, qualified training, pleasant workplaces and enjoyment of work rather suggest a made-for-cinema commercial.

Meike Weimann