Stronghold of Toughs

Milan, a successful company director, is replaced, and he decides to find out why.

The city of Maribor before the Second World War, and Maribor after its liberation mark the period in which the film Cafe Astoria is set. The story relates with a gentle melancholy and a slight irony the lives of a middle-class family: the cafe owner, his wife and their son. Through their individual destinies we become acquainted with the social and historical background of a by-gone era; the social and national differences of pre-war Maribor, divisions among the wealthy and poor, and nationally minded Slovenes and fanatic Germanophils. The first year after the war introduced the absurd characteristic cruel measures of the so-called revolutionary social transformations in which calamity and coincidence intervene, resulting in events of comic nature, of course, as seen from a safe distance of fifty years.

Cukrarna, an old building where the poets Murn and Kette once lived, is an important place in Ljubljana. For a long time this building has been the refuge for different people of all occupations and age, a small gallery of tragic human destinies.

The daily journey of the young deliverer of the Delo magazine. The contrast between the mood of a young vendor and the impressive photos of global events reported by the newspaper.

The sights and sounds of the big game between Maribor and Olimpija. Stadium audience often reacts deliriously regardless of the player’s success on the field.

Three young athletes, alpine skier Bojan Križaj, swimmer Borut Petrič and tennis player Mima Jaušovec are always proud to represent Yugoslavia in sports competitions. Talent is not enough. They had to work hard to reach the top.