Breath of the Word - The Portrait of Tomaž Pengov

Inserts from neo-avant-garde films by Emir Kusturica, Zivojin Pavlovic and Zelimir Zilnik made in the so-called Yugoslav film period of the 1970s and 1980s are re-read, re-worked, re-coded in a video story contemplating the role of different media in the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the time of world internet communications, cyborg stories and world spread computer nets. If it is true that we all part of a giant hypertext, coded by adapted and shortened CD-ROM histories, then why not try to display the video picture as hypertext, as the one which will show the hidden spots of our history and present?

A story of fragility, sexuality, monstrosities and geographical confusions. Everything, everywhere is the slogan of the nineties, a confusion of bodies, concepts and strategies, a kind of out of joint situation for the subject. And we find ourselves in all the media, in all the bodies in all the possible spaces at ones, but this deadly dance is not innocent. The video consists of the main part in which wives of the so-called totalitarian leaders as of the Rumanian dictator Cauceuscu (Elena) and of the former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic (Mirjana Milosevic) are forced to dance. Focused on the portrait of Mirjana Milosevic (The story of Mirjana M.) a kitsch melodramatic Balkan saga of power, drama, pop-folk elements and evil/demons is constructed. The apathy of feelings is caught in the dramatic tango that is slowed down for the camera eye.

Young mothers and sometimes also their daughters have vastly travelled from Vipavska valley to Egypt in 20th century. Their families were poor and needed money. So they went to Alexandria and worked as wet nurses and helpers for wealthier people. They often left their own kids alone with their fathers, only taking care for them with gifts and money. Many never returned and even if they did, they were not well accepted.