At the last meeting of the selection committee of the film fund in Luxembourg, the Slovenian feature film Kapa, to be directed by Slobodan Maksimović, received more than half a million (511,147 euros) of public funding. The producer of the film is Ida Weiss from the Senca Studio production company. It is a full-length family feature film, which until now, in addition to the already mentioned film fund, has been financially supported by the Croatian Audiovisual Center, the Croatian public television HRT, RTV Slovenia, the Slovak public television RTVS, and during the development phase the film was also supported by the European Creative Europe Fund (Media sub-program), the Re-Act regional fund and the Ministry of Public Administration of the Republic of Slovenia.
The full-length feature film was also selected for co-financing by the Slovenian Film Center last year, but it has not yet received the intended funds. Filming of the film should begin in January 2021, and the producer said: “The completely incomprehensible blocking of payments, which have been going on for months and are the result of the government’s decision not to allow materials that are approved by both the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Finance gives the green light, it seriously threatens the start of filming, and thus also the drawing of foreign funds, as these are linked to certain deadlines concerning the realization of the project. The fact is that the realization is not possible without a guaranteed cash flow and domestic funds, as it involves a complex organization of many collaborators from different countries and the coordination of many services necessary to carry out the filming (from various rental equipment and services, to accommodation and transportation), which is already very difficult due to the epidemic and the fact that the state, following the example of many countries, has so far not come to the rescue in this part. The situation, when the state even owes payments for the signed contracts and the obligations it has accepted (and which, according to all the collected data, is unique and is not remembered anywhere in Europe), forces us to take very large financial risks, which we cannot handle to bear and in the following weeks may also lead to a withdrawal from the realization and thus the return of all the hard-earned foreign funds.”
Nataša Bučar, director of the Slovenian Film Center, added: “These kinds of international co-production funds are extremely important for the realization of the film. Producers can obtain up to 30% of international funds on an annual basis. For the first time in history, it happened that the Luxembourg Film Fund financially supported a Slovenian film to such an extent. While European film funds financially support Slovenian films, the home country does not. We hope and wish that the government will release financial resources soon, and that this and other films that are waiting for co-financing will be able to start filming next year.”
The Kapa film project is a family Christmas adventure in which all wishes come true, but not quite as the protagonists of the film expect. The script for the film was written by Saša Eržen.