Špela Čadež is a Slovenian director who’s been winning growing attention, acclaim and awards both inside and outside the country for her work, and was recently invited to become a member of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, better known as the organisation that gives out the Oscars. You can keep up with her work by following Studio Finta, while this post includes two shorts made in collaboration with screenwriter Gregor Zorc.
The first is their debut, 2013’s Boles, inspired by Maxim Gorky’s Her Lover, with the following synopsis: Filip lives in a poor neighbourhood. He dreams of writer’s glory and luxurious lifestyle in a more prosperous part of town. One day Filip gets a knock on the door. His neighbour Tereza, an older prostitute that Filip tries to avoid by all means, asks him to write a letter for her fiancé. Filip agrees. And it would all end up fine if a week later Tereza would not show up at his doorstep again, asking him to write an answer to the previous letter.
BOLES from Spela Cadez - Finta Studio on Vimeo.
The second is Nighthawk (Nocna ptica) (2016), which is presented with the following introductory text: Attempting to remove an unresponsive badger from a dark road, a police patrol soon realizes that the animal is not dead but rather dead drunk. Things take an even stranger turn when the creature wakes up.
Nighthawk from Spela Cadez - Finta Studio on Vimeo.
