The Grandmothers of Revolution  //  Babice revolucije (Orig.)

Story of authors Revolutionary grandmothers. They all three fought for what they believed – anarchism, communism, freedom movement, and all three had to pay for that. A film about strong grandmothers, showing different roles of the family, antagonism between lie, illusion and the reality. Slovenian director Petra Seliškar investigates the role of ideology in her personal family history by means of interviews with her paternal grandfather, her Macedonian boyfriend Brand's maternal grandmother and his Cuban grandmother on his father's side. Illustrated by archival footage and home movies, her voice-over describes her family's personal story, Yugoslavia under Tito, and the recent war, accompanied by some particularly shocking footage. The nature shots and the alternation of classical, popular and revolutionary music occasionally lend the stories a light-hearted tone. After WWII, her grandfather was imprisoned for 12 years in the Slovenian prison camp Kocevje for his nationalist fight against the partisans. In spite of it all, he is not resentful. Brand's mother Ilinka tells about his uncle, also called Brand, who was shot by the police during a demonstration against the regime. At his funeral, his mother (Brand's grandmother) held a nationalist speech; since then, the day of his death has been a national holiday in Macedonia. Nowadays, this grandmother still supports the necessity of dictatorship and fear in order to rebuild a country. Her views parallel those of Brand's other grandmother, who lives in Cuba and defends the one-party system there.