Lunch with Family
"A British veteran of the Italian campaign of 1945 inquires about a name, Vlado Turina. The journey to discover if Turina was a spy or a freedom fighter, an Italian or a Slovenian, takes the researcher from the public to the private sphere and changes her sense of identity forever". This story will take time and effort (visit now and again, you will be surprised by new material).
Soldiers of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. 1917. Pardubitz, today Pardubice, Czech Republic.
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Unknown archives are dangerous places. They open gates to the past one did not imagine existed. This is what happened to me when I entered the Slovenian Historical Archive in Trieste, Italy. Just like the meeting between Edda and Marino in 'Behind the Book', my meeting with Vlado changed my life.
Nina. 1917. Turini village - also known as 'villa Turina', Istria - Austrian-Hungarian Empire.
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Long before I met Vlado, I encountered the images soldiers and girls, the trenches of the First World War, and the longing for peace. Somehow, they would be all connected...
Filming documents. Are they dictating how to narrate them...or, are we narrating our own story using them to support it?
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It took a long time to film this. 1500 photos, more than 100 documents, two trips to Trieste, Italy...and much thinking and questioning. The most challenging aspect remained the unexplainable feeling that the documents were mute and able to support multiple narratives. How were I supposed to maintain objectivity in tracing the story I discovered?
End then, the collected material called for a different place, a place of memory. It was then that I understood. I had to enter my mind, the place where memory lodges and identity is shaped. It so happened that 'miniature building' became absolutely necessary...
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And one day I entered my memories, the place where I store them. The place where my identity is formed, where it shifts at times...where I finally reconcile with it. The film was taking form...and my research lead the way. I had the clear feeling that images and documents indicated me the way, revealed details I had never noticed before and ultimately, told me what I could not see before.