UN BENEATH HER WINDOW / POD NJENIM OKNOM
SLOVENIA 2003
Director: Metod Pevec, 91 MIN

Men are useless – at least the men who play a part in the life of nearly 30-year-old dance instructor Dusha. After having sex, her lover goes to his wife, her father leaves her a king cobra in a box and her neighbour is a binge-drinker. In her loneliness, Dusha consults a phone-astrologer, but even he cannot give her life meaning. Drugs, sleeplessness and trouble with her boss make her sink even deeper into a crisis. The eerie stalker who ambushes her in the dark and films her with a video-camera is all she needs on top of her troubles. The father of this “pervert” (who might not be so perverted) studies the love-life of Slovenian birds. Through grouse and storks the stalker and the object of his desire draw closer. But the man who gets her pregnant is her lover; he, from whom she has nothing to expect. “If only those children had been born whose fathers wanted them, the human kind would have been extinct long ago,” says Dusha’s ingenious, hard drinking mother, who longs for a granddaughter. But we will also see that men have their good sides, too: they can repair drains and make pancakes; sometimes it even suffices if they stop by for a coffee. BENEATH HER WINDOW touches a chord with its whimsical humour, intelligent dialogues and its affectionate handling of its characters. This film so clearly sides with women that it’s hard to believe the director is a man.

Caligari: 10.04. / 5.30 p.m.
Bambi: 11.04. / 6 p.m.