When a German supermarket chain decides to demolish a monument of a partisan hero in order to build a shopping mall, the hero’s son France declares war on the Jerry enemy and stages a spectacular reception for its representative, who is Greek. In the midst of this game of partisans vs. the occupier, France’s daughter Vida and her husband Toni are trying to conceive a baby, when a shocking family secret is revealed. The film is a black comedy about a family fighting an external enemy and ending up at war with itself.
“The film is the expression of anger and helplessness of my generation over our nation’s obsession with the past. Given the amount of real problems, it seems absurd to still be arguing about who was on the right side of our recent history. This is why history repeats itself in the film, not as a tragedy, but as a black comedy that metaphorically puts WWII back in its rightful place,” says director Žiga Virc in a statement.
Žiga Virc penned the script together with Iza Smrekar, who wrote the screenplay for Tijana Zinajič’s debut feature Bitch, a Derogatory Term for a Woman (2021, December).
The main roles are played by Slovenian actors Primož Pirnat, Eva Jesenovec, Bine Matoh and Jurij Drevenšek, joined by the Greek actress Angeliki Papoulia, who has starred in renowned films, including The Lobster by Yorgos Lanthimos.
Shooting Blanks was produced by Boštjan Virc through Studio Virc, in coproduction with Asphalt (Greece), Nukleus Film (Croatia), Asterisk Post (Greece) and Levante Produzioni (Italy). The project was supported by the Slovenian Film Centre, the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, RTV Slovenija, the Greek television broadcaster ERT, Eurimages, Creative Europe MEDIA and FS Viba Film.
Picture Tree International (Germany) is handling the sales.
Žiga Virc was born in 1987. His debut feature Houston, We Have a Problem! (2016, Studio Virc) won the Vesna Award for Best Feature Film at the Festival of Slovenian Film and the 2017 Štiglic Gaze Award for Directing, given annually by the Directors Guild of Slovenia. The film had also been the 2016 Slovenian foreign-language Academy Award candidate and it was acquired by Netflix in 2017.
Production Information:
Producer:
Studio Virc (Slovenia)
Boštjan Virc: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Coproducers:
Asphalt (Greece)
Nukleus Film (Croatia)
Asterisk Post (Greece)
Levante Produzioni (Italy)
Credits:
Director: ŽigaVirc
Screenwriters: Iza Strehar, ŽigaVirc
DoP: Fabris Šulin
Editor: Vladimir Gojun
Production designer: Gregor Nartnik
Costume designer: Tina Hribernik
Make-up artist: Lea Bratušek
Cast: Primož Pirnat, Eva Jesenovec, Bine Matoh, Jurij Drevenšek, Angeliki Papoulia
