Movies by Bert Sotlar

The Esophagus Battle

The Esophagus Battle

Based on a novel by Prežihov Voranc, it tells a story about a farmer's family who live in Northern Slovenia before WW2.

The Idealist

The Idealist

The movie based upon the classical Slovene novel Martin Kačur, depicts the clash between the teacher Martin Kačur and his conservative environment. Due to his progressive ideas, he is transferred to a small town. The village environment is even more depressing than his former surroundings were, as the influence of both the secular and the Church authorities is even greater in the country. Even though Martin meets Tončka and the two of them get married, he gradually becomes a disillusioned and embittered man. In time, when society's stricture...

Good Luck, Kekec

Good Luck, Kekec

Two boys, Kekec and Rozle, come to serve a farmer, with a blind daughter Mojca, as shepherds. As the night falls, the two boys start talking about a woman who lives in the mountains and is supposed to steal children. Her name is Pehta. In the morning, Kekec, Rozle and Mojca go to an Alpine cottage and Kekec promises Mojca that he will find her a remedy for her eyes. As the girl is picking flowers, Pehta arrives and takes Mojca into her cottage. She wants to keep Mojca because of her singing.

Three Stories

Three Stories

Three stories connected by the motifs of water and death told in neorealist style.

Lucia

Lucia

A melodramatic story of Lucia, who serves as a charwoman on the Podlogar family's rich farm, and makes a fuss among householder's sons, as she becomes pregnant with one of them. A decision on whether one should be forced into marriage with the pregnant charwoman and her child, ends tragically. Will Lucia be able to sustain psychological pressure, contempt and pity of the Podlogar brothers?

Life in Kajzar

Life in Kajzar

A post-WW2 story about the village largely involved in wine-making business. The peasants who claimed possessions of lands, woods, and churches after communist party seized the power hold a party where a member of so-called reactionary forces (kulaks, clergy and Axis collaborators) tries to break in and stop it.

One Fine Day

One Fine Day

A story set in a Slovenian village during Italian occupation. Stefuc, a man who has been widowed twice and has four daughters, wants to get married for the third time with Zana, who's already engaged and pregnant with Ludvik. Stefuc tries to separate them away, but realizes that he'll have to marry Hedvika, a nice looking girl who has just returned from Milan. In the meantime, Italian fascist authorities decide to eradicate five Slovenian songs with the help of local traitors.

The Lake

The Lake

Bad weather, farmers who do not allow the dumping of their estate, and people who are willing to sabotage for ideological reasons, disrupt the building of hydro-power on the Neretva river. Upon completion of construction, the benefits of electricity assures people of the necessity of progress.

Four Days to Death

Four Days to Death

Between the two World Wars, Yugoslavia was ruled by a monarchy. This movie explores the difficulties faced by a Communist Party organizer under that regime when an order goes out to kill anyone threatening the current regime. At first he is willing to leave the country, but his experience of the situation of workers moves him to stay. Despite efforts of captors to help him escape, he refuses, and dies a martyr's death.

Square of Violence

Square of Violence

Set in Italy, the story takes place in this very country, during WW2, where German occupation army ruled everything, just before the allied forces came, in 1944. Crawford plays here a doctor whose son has been shot by the Germans. Of course he has no more taste in life. He continues his work as a German officers' physician. One day, he throws a bomb just in the middle of German troops. Many soldiers and officers are killed. Some time later, the lead officer of the Nazis troops suspects the doctor to be the responsible of the explosion. He le...

Good Luck Hunting

Good Luck Hunting

An Australian of German descent has come to Yugoslavia on a hunting trip. He has an arrangement to hunt deers on the hunting ground high in Bosnian mountain. He shoots running deers straight in the head with his sniper carbine. This master shooting arouse suspicion with the gamekeeper that the stranger might be the notorious Nazi sniper who murdered many innocent civilians the same way during WWII.

The Tenth Brother

The Tenth Brother

Based on the novel by Josip Jurcic and set in rural Yugoslavia in the 1840's. The tenth brother of a family returns to the family home to take revenge on his father who had abandoned him as a child.

Don't Look Back, My Son

Don't Look Back, My Son

Engineer and leftist illegal Neven Novak runs away from a train in which Ustashas transport their prisoners to the prison camp Jasenovac. He returns to Zagreb and tries to save his son Zoran from an orphanage. During his stay in the orphanage, Zoran was indoctrinated with fascist ideology. When he realizes that his father is an enemy of the regime, he refuses to escape with Zoran to the Partisans' territory. Novak faces his son's antagonism and the police that chase after them.

Dog's Path

Dog's Path

A TV adaptation of the story “Twins” by Prezihov Voranc.

The Year Long Road

The Year Long Road

Italian director Giueseppe DeSantis was the creative force behind this Yugoslavian "slice of life" drama. The title translates as The Year-Long Road; accordingly, the plot concerns a joint, voluntary effort between Italy and Yugoslavia to construct a highway along the countries' Naturally, this animosity wreaks havoc on the various Romeo-Juliet romances in the region. All is resolved when oil is discovered on one of the islands. An American oil company is finally able to establish détente between the warring factions, smoothing the path for ...

Blossoms in Autumn

Blossoms in Autumn

Doctor Janez, a somewhat elderly lawyer, tired of urban life, pays a few week's visit to his relative Presecnik, a well-off farmer living in highland village. Farm life holds a great attraction for him, particularly because a deep and secret love develops between himself and Presecnik's daughter Meta. After a few serene and cheerful days spent on the farm, filled with pleasant labor and walks together with Meta in the unspoilt surroundings, he has to return to Ljubljana to resume his office work. But he cannot forget Meta and he makes his mi...

Occupation in 26 Pictures

Occupation in 26 Pictures

Set in Dubrovnik, this drama chronicles a friendship between three men, that began just before World War II. One of the men is of Italian origin, another is the wealthy heir of a shipping fortune, and the third is the son of a Jewish antique-store owner. Before the war, they are fast friends, enjoying one another's company at carnivals and at a private fencing club. However, when the war comes, the Italians and Germans move in to create the Independent State of Croatia. The Italian friend becomes a fascist and courts and marries the sister o...

Three Quarters of the Sun

Three Quarters of the Sun

A story of a group of men at a small frontier railway station who have been released from German concentration camps and are on their way home.

In the Net

In the Net

A small coastal town, where almost everybody are into fishing. Niko and Mato are friends, both in loved with the same girl Visnja, in charge of the fishermen's strike against the owners of the fishing boats. After being caught, Mato betrays his friends. Thus he becomes the subject of scorn both by the entire village and Visnja, who then marries Niko.

Shots in the Sky

Shots in the Sky

Upon returning home at war's end, a young lieutenant discovers that his family has been murdered by the Nazis. It's all the handiwork of a treasonous "Chetnik," who during the war worked against the partisans on behalf of the Germans. In bitter retaliation, the lieutenant sets about to decimate the Chetnik's family. He stops short, however, when he realizes that the sins of the fathers are not always passed down to the innocent children.