BODY
by Petra Seliskar, 72 min, STV. 2023
Co-produced with Petra Pan Films, (SL), Wolffgang & Dolly (CROA), PPFP (MAC),
with the support of Région SUD, Slovenian, Croatian & Macedonian Film Agencies,
Media Créative & Eurimages.
World Premiere : Sarajevo 2023
What happened at the Prespa Lake, that day? Urška was 22. She was a pianist, a model, and a single mother to a little girl. She remembers diving into the water, and swimming to a little island that stands in the middle of the lake. That was 15 years ago. She had the whole life ahead of her. But her body decided otherwise.
Shot over 20 years, «Body» tells the incredible story of a woman struggling with a body that speaks its own language. Struck suddenly by a series of rare autoimmune diseases, which make her tumble into disability, Urška learns to listen to her body, but also to face elements of her past that she had buried, not knowing that her cells would keep a record.
Diary of a body, medical investigation, existential meditation, «Body» is also the portrait of a strong, outspoken character, and the story of a friendship between two women who shared their adolescence in the tumult of the debuting ex-Yugoslavia.
Que s’est-il passé ce jour-là, au bord du lac Prespa ? Urška avait 22 ans. Elle était pianiste, mannequin, et mère célibataire d’une petite fille. Elle a plongé dans l’eau pour nager jusqu’à l’île située au milieu du lac. C’était il y a quinze ans. Elle avait la vie devant elle. Mais son corps en a décidé autrement.
Filmé sur une période de 20 ans, «Body» raconte le parcours invraisemblable d’une femme aux prises avec un corps qui se met à parler sa propre langue. Victime soudaine d’une série de maladies auto-immunes rarissimes qui la font basculer dans le handicap, Urška doit apprendre à écouter son corps, et à travers lui, à affronter un passé qu’elle avait enfoui, sans savoir que ses cellules en garderaient la trace.
Journal intime, enquête médicale, méditation existentielle sur les mystères du corps, «Body» est aussi le portrait d’une personnalité charismatique et décomplexée, et le récit d’une amitié entre deux femmes qui ont vécu leur adolescence dans les remous de l’ex-Yougoslavie.
CREDITS :
Writer and director: Petra Seliškar /Cinematographer: Brand Ferro / Editors: Sashko Potter Micevski, Sandra Bastašić / Composer: Vladimir Rakić / Sound designers: Vladimir Rakić, Vera Galešev / Producer: Petra Seliškar / Co-producers: Sara Ferro, Tamara Babum / Associate producer: Victor Ede / Production: Petra Pan Film (Slovenia) / Co-production: PPFP (North Macedonia), Wolfgang & Dolly (Croatia)
Developed with the support of: EX ORIENTE Workshop, EURODOC 2019, LAST STOP TRIESTE 2022 - Flow Digital Cinema Award, International Documentary Acossiation (IDA).
FESTIVALS :
2023 MakeDox (North Macedonian Premiere)
2023 Festival Slovenskega Filma Portorož (Slovenian Premiere)
2023 City of Women, International Festival of Contemporary Arts
2023 Cineast Film Festival (Luxembourg Premiere)
Vesna Award for Best Documentary Feature at Festival Slovenskega Filma Portorož 2023
