A Girl and A Tree
( Deklica In Drevo )

Vlado Skafar
2012 - 83 min - Slovénie

Summertime, a meadow covered with flowers. Wrapped in the rustle of birds and crickets, an old woman tells us about her life. Her happy childhood, her career on stage, moments of sadness or heartfelt joy. Such is the common, exceptional fate of Stefka Drolc. Her dear friend, Ivanka Mezan, joins her next to a tree under which the two legendary actresses of the Slovenian stage settle for a picnic that stretches along the thread of their infinitely sweet talk. With this 2011 FIDLab project, Vlado Skafar lives up to his reputation as a lone knight. He doesn’t shy away from symbolism, using elegant pan shots to linger on a page being turned, a dried flower in the middle of a book, the wrinkles on a face leaning against the rough bark of a tree — as if to putt off impending death. Like a vanitas painting? Certainly not, since the film is bursting with life. It prevails in the stories, in the sunbathed frames, in the love these women share, and in the nature that surrounds them, to such an extent that they end up melting into it. Time is their common material. The depth that Skafar creates with slow fade-outs is the very depth of existence itself, to which speech is trying to hold on. This, the film captures miraculously. The pastoral setting finally reveals its true nature as a stage for the actresses to play their biggest part.
(Céline Guénot, FID 2013)