Rollicking members of a brass band are on their way to a small Austrian town to perform there. Through the problems of select protagonists, the film follows them as they sing and frolic through their tour, while observing their wives back home and their feelings about their husbands’ carefree ways. The entire tour experience in five stories, along with its implications for all those involved.

“Orchestra is a film about the experience of switching off when going on the road, on a tour or a teambuilding trip. With this film, I wanted to explore this group dynamics and to discuss the Slovenian character, particularly its Zasavje region variant,” says director Matevž Luzar.

Orchestra was produced by Petra Vidmar through Gustav Film in coproduction with RTV Slovenija (Slovenia), Napravi Film (Croatia), Pihalni orkester Svea Zagorje (Slovenia), 001 (Slovenia), Ready on Set (Slovenia), Unicasting (Slovenia), Noella (Slovenia) and Sindikat (Slovenia). The project was supported by the Slovenian Film Centre. ”The budget was 1.12 m EUR, only 52,84% being public funding, the rest was raised with the vast domestic and Croatian coproduction structure,” Petra Vidmar told FNE.

The film was released by Gustav Film in the summer of 2022 with an open-air cinema tour followed by regular cinema screenings.

“There is no world sales agent attached to the film yet, which is unfortunate since it is also Slovenia’s candidate for the 95th Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences award in the Best International Feature Film category,” Vidmar also said.

Matevž Luzar (born in 1981) graduated from film school with his acclaimed short film Wolfy (2007), which was nominated for the Honorary Foreign Award at the 35th Annual Student Academy Awards. Besides his work as a director and screenwriter, he also teaches screenwriting in Ljubljana. From 2020, he is the president of the Directors Guild of Slovenia and a member of the European Film Academy.

Production Information:

Producer:
Gustav Film (Slovenia)
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Coproducers:
RTV Slovenija (Slovenia)
Napravi Film (Croatia)
Pihalni orkester Svea Zagorje (Slovenia)
001 (Slovenia)
Ready on Set (Slovenia)
Unicasting (Slovenia)
Noella (Slovenia)
Sindikat (Slovenia)

Credits:
Director: Matevž Luzar
Screenwriter: Matevž Luzar
DoP: Simon Tanšek, ZFS
Editor: Jelena Maksimović
Production designer: Katja Šoltes
Costume designer: Nadja Bedjanič
Make-up artist: Eva Uršič
Sound designer: Julij Zornik
Cast: Gregor Zorc, Gregor Čušin, Jernej Kogovšek, Alexander Mitterer, Maria Hofstätter, Lovro Lezič, Gaber Trseglav, Vesna Pernarčič, Ana Facchini, Mateja Pucko, Mojca Funkl, Marinka Štern, musicians of Pihalni Orkester Svea Zagorje