Austrian-Slovenian writer-director Andrina Mračnikar is currently shooting her upcoming feature Mila/Marija. Inspired by her own family history, the film will be the first feature to focus on the resistance of the Carinthian Slovenians against the Nazi dictatorship, and the first to depict Austria’s resistance movement during World War II. It also marks the first live-action co-production between Slovenia and Austria.

Set in 1943 in a mountain village in Carinthia, the story follows 19-year-old Mila, who joins the Partisans alongside her brother Hanzi to fight the Nazis from the forests. As she rises to lead a resistance unit, Mila faces life-or-death decisions. When she returns home after the liberation, she must once again confront the crucial question: submission or resistance?

Mila/Marija features an international cast led by Slovenian actress Doroteja Nadrah (History of Love [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Sonja Prosenc
scheda film]) as Mila. Popular singer and actor Oskar Haag (Sleeping with a Tiger [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Anja Salomonowitz
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intervista: Xaver Böhm
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intervista: Jasmila Žbanić
scheda film]). Croatian star Leon Lučev (The Load [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Ognjen Glavonić
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intervista: Dominik Mencej
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Mračnikar, born in Austria and raised in Ljubljana and Carinthia, stated: “With Mila/Marija, I wish to make the first feature dedicated to the history of the Slovenian national community and the resistance of the Carinthian Partisans against Nazism. The project is also important to me personally, as the story of the Carinthian Slovenians and the anti-fascist resistance is part of my family history. My goal is to create films with a clear stance that ask crucial questions and are simultaneously emotionally powerful, formally consistent and courageous.” In her award-winning documentary Disappearance [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], she explored the fading presence of the Slovenian language in Austrian Carinthia.

The creative team includes script editors Barbara Albert and Jürgen Karasek, director of photography Georg Weiss, production designer Miha Knific, costume designer Sandra Žigová, make-up designer Michaela Payer, editor Karina Ressler, sound recordist Aljaž Lukan, composer Tomaž Grom and sound designer Julij Zornik. Filming began in early October in Globasnitz and the surrounding forests of Carinthia, and will continue across Carinthia and Slovenia until mid-November.

At the start of filming, the producers stated that Mila/Marija is both an intimate story of a young woman facing impossible choices and a vital act of remembrance, preserving a forgotten chapter of collective history. Set in Carinthia, where the Slovenian-speaking population has lived for centuries, the film sheds light on the resistance of thousands of men and women against the Nazi regime, a story of courage, freedom and solidarity that has never before been portrayed on screen, and one that resonates powerfully today as intolerance and authoritarianism are on the rise once again worldwide.

Mila/Marija is a Slovenian-Austrian-Greek co-production staged by Danijel Hočevar and Katja Lenarčič for Ljubljana-based Vertigo, and Alexander Dumreicher-Ivanceanu and Bady Minck for Vienna-based Amour Fou, in co-production with Ioanna Davi for Chania-based Indigo View and Austria’s Ruth Beckermann Filmproduktion. It is being made in collaboration with Austrian pubcaster ORF (under the Film/Television Agreement) and RTV Slovenija, and in cooperation with Viba Film Studio. The film is supported by the Austrian Film Institute (ÖFI and ÖFI+), the Slovenian Film Centre, the Hellenic Film & Audiovisual Center, the Slovak Audiovisual Fund – Tax Rebate, the Vienna Film Fund, the Carinthia Film Commission and the Future Fund of the Republic of Austria. The movie is expected to be released in cinemas in both Austria and Slovenia next year.