Sunday 19 July, from h. 20:15
Teatro Falcone e Borsellino, via della Montagna, 2, Zafferana Etnea (CT)
FREE ENTRY
Iztok Kovač & Sašo Podgoršek
The twenties of the twenty-first century.
An age of late capitalism.
An age of ruthless exploitation, of devouring the planet’s resources, of destruction, an age of climate change.
An age of water and food shortages on one side, and sickening excess on the other.
The world’s wealth lies in the hands of elites who exploit people globally and relentlessly — and soon, humanity itself may no longer be needed.
Human dignity cries out to the sky, but the sky remains deaf.
The filmmakers raise a series of questions:
Who is considered redundant today, and by whom?
Who among us is unnecessary?
Am I the surplus one, or are you?
Do we even exist if we neither produce nor consume?
How thin is the line between being useful and being disposable?
Performed by six dancers and three musicians, and captured through fifteen cameras, the piece unfolds as both an aesthetic exploration and a philosophical inquiry into the boundaries between necessity and redundancy in contemporary society. Trapped within an anonymous space that offers no clear exit, the performers navigate shifting relations of visibility and agency. The film is based on Ilija Trojanow’s essay The Superfluous Man: An Essay on Human Dignity in Late Capitalism.
The twenties of the twenty-first century.
An age of late capitalism.
An age of ruthless exploitation, of devouring the planet’s resources, of destruction, an age of climate change.
An age of water and food shortages on one side, and sickening excess on the other.
The world’s wealth lies in the hands of elites who exploit people globally and relentlessly — and soon, humanity itself may no longer be needed.
Human dignity cries out to the sky, but the sky remains deaf.
The filmmakers raise a series of questions:
Who is considered redundant today, and by whom?
Who among us is unnecessary?
Am I the surplus one, or are you?
Do we even exist if we neither produce nor consume?
How thin is the line between being useful and being disposable?
Performed by six dancers and three musicians, and captured through fifteen cameras, the piece unfolds as both an aesthetic exploration and a philosophical inquiry into the boundaries between necessity and redundancy in contemporary society. Trapped within an anonymous space that offers no clear exit, the performers navigate shifting relations of visibility and agency. The film is based on Ilija Trojanow’s essay The Superfluous Man: An Essay on Human Dignity in Late Capitalism.
Created and performed by: En–Knap Group (Mattia Cason, Luke Thomas Dunne, Tina Habun, Rada Kovačević, Tamás Tuza, Carolina Alessandra Valentini)
Music created and performed by: Damir Avdić, Boštjan Gombač, Tomaž Grom
Concept and artistic direction: Iztok Kovač
Screenplay: Iztok Kovač, Sašo Podgoršek
Directed by: Sašo Podgoršek
Director of photography: Stanko Herceg HFS
Set design: Niko Novak
Costume design: Katarina Markov (Atelje d.o.o.)
Editing: Sašo Podgoršek
Music producer: Tomaž Grom
Sound design: Julij Zornik, Samo Jurca
Camera operators: Stanko Herceg, Omar Ismail, Sašo Podgoršek
Lights: MB Grip
Sound recording: Igor Iskra, Miha Rudolf
Additional music: Tomaž Grom
Colorist: Filip Tot
FX and title design: Komposter
Technical support: Leon Curk, Omar Ismail, Hotimir Knific, Gal Škrjanec Skaberne, Špela Škulj
Technical coordinator: Jaka Šimenc
En–Knap production team: Karmen Keržar, Zoran Dževerdanović, Marjeta Lavrič, Iztok Kovač, Sašo Podgoršek, Julija Travančić
Production: En–Knap
Coproduction: Švenk / 001 / MB Grip
In collaboration with Croatian Audiovisual Centre
Thanks to: Vlado Škafar, Stojan Pelko, Matevž Jerman, Erzen Shkollolli, Agota Harmati, Darko Vinkl, Akaša Bojić, Luka Umek, Andrej Lamut
With the help of: Španski borci Cultural Centre
The film was made with the financial support of the Slovenian Film Centre, a public agency of the Republic of Slovenia.
Members of the expert programming commission of the Slovenian Film Centre: Vilma Štritof, Siniša Gačić and Primož Ledinek
Director of the Slovenian Film Centre: Nataša Bučar
The long-term collaboration between choreographer Iztok Kovač and film director Sašo Podgoršek has developed into one of the most distinctive and enduring artistic partnerships in European dance film. Emerging from the experimental atmosphere of Slovenian contemporary dance in the 1990s, the duo gradually shaped a hybrid cinematic language that resists conventional categorisation. These are not “dance moments captured on film”, it is more as if the film itself begins to dance, and as if dance is refracted through image as a visual-musical orchestration — closer to a choreographed installation than to a genre work. This is also why their films can hold dialogue, silence, the raw presence of voices, and still remain unmistakably choreographic in how they think about time.
After nearly three decades —and the loss of their former industrial setting in Trbovlje—Kovač and Podgoršek turned to a neutral white space. This deliberate reduction strips away context to foreground the individual as a site of meaning and resistance.
The long-term collaboration between choreographer Iztok Kovač and film director Sašo Podgoršek has developed into one of the most distinctive and enduring artistic partnerships in European dance film. Emerging from the experimental atmosphere of Slovenian contemporary dance in the 1990s, the duo gradually shaped a hybrid cinematic language that resists conventional categorisation. These are not “dance moments captured on film”, it is more as if the film itself begins to dance, and as if dance is refracted through image as a visual-musical orchestration — closer to a choreographed installation than to a genre work. This is also why their films can hold dialogue, silence, the raw presence of voices, and still remain unmistakably choreographic in how they think about time.
After nearly three decades —and the loss of their former industrial setting in Trbovlje—Kovač and Podgoršek turned to a neutral white space. This deliberate reduction strips away context to foreground the individual as a site of meaning and resistance.