Aleš Klinar

What do volunteer firefighting, Dalmatia, Jože Potrebuješ and denial of one’s true self have in common? This is a film which tells nothing new… A film about Slovenian popular music, the only genre that can live off its consumers’ approval alone; no subsidies, whining and advertising. What happens after music critics and art theorists go to bed? What happens when radio editors stop pretending that mainstream music in Slovenia is in sync with that at global level? What happens when students quit the act of being urban and progressive, surrendering themselves to their newly discovered roots? What happens is Slovenian Popular Music.

From 1977 to 1991 an image of Slovenia as a green, demilitarised and peaceful country of diligent people reigned in Yugoslavia, a country where differences are not only allowed, but also desired. This period ends with a ten-day war, when the identity turns from peacefulness, modesty and diligence into courage and a fighting spirit. The film documents the changes in Slovenia and its inhabitants, which have in recent years brought us to a completely different understanding of national identity, different from the one which was true in Slovenia as well as abroad twenty years ago.