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OSCARS 2017 Slovenia

Slovenia bets on Houston, We Have a Problem! for the Oscar race

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- Žiga Virc's Tribeca title and the winner of the Vesna Award for Best Slovenian Film will represent the country at the Oscars

Slovenia bets on Houston, We Have a Problem! for the Oscar race
Houston, We Have a Problem! by Žiga Virc

Houston, We Have a Problem! [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Žiga Virc
film profile
]
is the first feature by Žiga Virc, a docu-fiction about the myth behind a supposed multi-billion-dollar deal involving America’s purchase of Yugoslavia’s space programme in the early 1960s. This co-production between Slovenia (Studio Virc), Croatia (Nukleus Film) and Germany (Sutor Kolonko Filmproduktion) had its world premiere at Tribeca, bowed to European audiences in Karlovy Vary's East of the West section and last week triumphed at the Festival of Slovenian Film in Portoroz (read the news), taking home the Vesna Award for Best Slovenian Film, the Best Actor Award for Ivan Pavić and Best Editing for Vladimir Gojun.

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Houston, We Have a Problem! paints a portrait of the way a nation constructs its identity and is a true representation of the power of media manipulation, as it masterfully captures the attention of the audience through interviews with philosopher Slavoj Žižek, rich archive footage of Tito, and an investigation that incorporates a former Yugoslavian space engineer, an American historian and a retired Yugoslav People’s Army general. 

Previously, Virc was known for his short film Trieste Is Ours!, in which he started to explore the topic of Yugoslavia’s past and the way it shapes the national conscience in the present day. The filmended up in the finals of the Student Academy Awards in 2010.

Houston, We Have a Problem! will screen at the BFI London Film Festival in October.

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