Screening of film/video oeuvre 1998–2025
Screening and talk
Tuesday, 24 March 2026, 5 pm
Slovenian Cinematheque, Miklošičeva cesta 28, Ljubljana
Captured Water and Timeless River as classified by Andrej Šprah, fall into the landscape documentary category. Captured Water tells the story of water collection in the cross-border Goriška Karst region, from wells to the water supply system. During World War I, the Karst served as an important rear area for the Austro-Hungarian army, particularly near the battlefields on the Soča Front, which led to the development of military logistical infrastructure, including the water supply system. Timeless River, on the other hand, focuses on the flow of the Soča River and the various ways it is used and appropriated. Through its polyphonic narrative, the film transcends any individual understanding or appropriation of the Soča, thereby approaching the river’s perspective.
Here, a significant difference in the formal structure of the two films is also evident. While Captured Water—which explores how people arrange access to a water source—is shot in static shots and features a set of speakers who appear multiple times in the film, Timeless River, with its structure, is much more akin to the flow of the river itself. The opening shots are filmed with a dynamic handheld camera; not a single speaker appears more than once in the film, and each presents a completely new perspective on the Soča: from plans to build hydroelectric power plants, kayaking, ecology and pollution, paganism, biodiversity, animals, fishing and concern for the fish population, water level control, to artistic or purely personal inspiration.
By multiplying landscapes and speakers, the film completely dismantles any dominant narrative line about the Soča or any specific way of appropriating or using it—and it is precisely through this process that it best allows the Soča itself to speak: The truth about the Soča is, at best, merely an individual gesture of its appropriation, and it is precisely by multiplying these gestures that the authors most effectively demonstrate how the river is always something more, both in relation to individual truths and to the totality of perspectives. Although multiple voices are already present in Captured Water, it seems that the flow truly begins with Timeless River, which takes its title from the words of the old-timer Anton Jug Kopoviščar: “Ice is a frozen moment of the river, / only when the sun commands, / will it be able to flow toward the sea.”
Robert Kuret
The screening will be followed by a discussion with Anja Medved and Nadja Velušček.
Director, Screenwriter: Anja Medved, Nadja Velušček, production: KINOkašča / CINEMattic, Slovenia, 2014, HD video, colour, 43′
Water is the source of life, so people have always adapted to it. Once humans captured and harnessed it to their advantage, they began to dominate life. Cultures and civilisations have been born around water sources. It has connected people. Today, the times when people used to go to the well with buckets seem like a distant past, yet many still remember how lively it was around the wells. Every day of the year demanded its own bucket, so they were careful with every drop. It was only with the advent of the water supply that everyone could get their own water, which flowed freely. Wells and ponds began to disappear and decay. The film captures fragments of 20th-century history, as reflected in the water sources of the transboundary Goriška Brda region.
Director, Screenwriter: Anja Medved, Nadja Velušček, production: Zavod Kinoatelje (SLO), Kinoatelje (ITA), Slovenia/Italy, 2010, HD video, colour, 63′
The Soča has always been a border river. In its relatively short course, it connects two completely different landscapes: the Alps and the Mediterranean. Moreover, it seems to have two distinct personalities. It also has two names. The Soča is female. The Isonzo is male. The Soča is a river of contradictions; attractive and dangerous, known for its emerald color and bloody front lines. World War I not only destroyed lives, villages, and fields in these parts, but also the relationship that people of that time had with nature. The survivors had to start from scratch, and it seems we still live in this hastily constructed world today. Encounters along the Soča reveal the contradictions we experience today in our relationship with nature. Compared to the life of the river, human life seems insignificant, and yet today humans can interfere with the laws of nature. At a time when political borders are being dismantled, we must learn to set our own boundaries regarding our shared river.
Anja Medved and Nadja Velušček: Zone Of Transition
Screening of film/video oeuvre 1998–2025
Screening and lecture
17 December / 21 January / 18 February / 24 March / 21 April / 8 May / 10 June
Production: SCCA-Ljubljana and Slovenian Cinematheque
Curators: Vesna Bukovec, Robert Kuret
Anja Medved (1969) and Nadja Velušček (1948) are mother and daughter who have been working together as authors since the late 1990s. Their joint work focuses on exploring the Slovenian-Italian border region. In doing so, the authors subtly delineate the personal and the public: they draw on intimate narratives and vivid testimonies from individuals’ personal archives, connecting them to the history of grand narratives, thus carefully revealing the polyphony of historical Truth. Since most of the films are medium-length documentaries, we have paired them to provide an overview of their creative oeuvre. Moreover, because the films are so open and thematically polyphonic due to their fragmentary, essayistic nature, practically every combination activates certain connections. Therefore, we wanted to design the program so that the juxtaposed films would articulate the border and the borderline anew each time. Seven program sections with the titles Gorica / Nova Gorica, Memory / Document, Environment / Territory, Water Level / Watercourse, Peace / War, Violence / Compassion, Departures / Arrivals will be screened from December to June at the Slovenian Cinematheque and in May at the Vodnikova domačija. Part of the program will also be available on the Slovenian Film Database during the retrospective.
Coproduction: SCCA-Ljubljana/DIVA Station and Slovenian Cinematheque
Partner: Slovenian Film Database (BSF), Zavod Kinoatelje (SLO), Kinoatelje (ITA), Zavod KINOkašča / CINEMattic, Zavod Divja misel (Vodnikova domačija), GO! 2025 Nova Gorica Gorizia
Supported by: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, City of Ljubljana – Department of Culture
Thanks: RTV Slovenija, Slovenski program RAI, Andrej Šprah, Vlado Škafar, Tina Popovič
