Suburbs

UK PREMIERE

Maltings Cinema
Friday 23rd, 21:00

Suburbs fixes its unflinching gaze on the moral alienation of four seemingly benign middle-aged friends. Standing out amongst them is Marjan, who is finding it hard to get over his wife's suicide - not that he would ever be able to express these feelings to his alcohol-soaked buddies, whose squandered lives revolve around their daily drinking sessions at the local bowling alley. Their chauvinistic banter, at first amusingly un-PC, soon reveals the extent of the rampant misogyny and festering racial hatred that fires them.

When Marjan tells them of his annoyance at his new neighbours' noisy sex life, they urge him to film the foreign lovebirds' intimate sessions. What starts up as a voyeuristic prank slides into sadistic obsession: washed-up and disillusioned, unable to face up to their own mediocrity, these men bear the brunt of such ineffable frustration that their deflated sense of self implodes into extraordinary brutality. Veering between bleak humour and jolting bursts of poignancy, Suburbs thunders on to its shocking climax, delivering an uncompromising meditation on alienation and cruelty.

Director's profile:

Born in 1958 in Celje, Vinko Möderndorfer has been one of the most prolific Slovenian artists since he graduated in theatre direction from the Academy for Theatre, Radio, Film and television in 1982. In the last twenty years he has directed more than 70 theatre and opera productions, several radio plays and 12 television dramas and documentaries based on his own scripts. He has published 25 books in as many years (comprising poems, novellas, novels, screenplays, essays and radio plays). Suburbs is his first feature film.

Unlike most of its neighbours in the ex-republic of Yugoslavia, Slovenia managed to achieve independence without any blood being shed. Its tourism trade has been thriving and it has successfully marketed itself as a small European paradise, keen to remain clearly distinct from the ever-explosive Balkans. Recent Slovenian films such as the Berlinale 2003 entry Spare Parts (Rezervni Deli) by Damjan Kozole and this directorial debut by novelist, playwright and theatre director Vinko Möderndorfer (featured in the Variety Critics' choice section at last year's Venice Film Festival) have subverted this squeaky-clean image to explore the darker sides of the Slovenian psyche.

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