“Deadlock”

Director Biography

Vinko Möderndorfer (1958, Slovenia) is a director and writer. His feature »Suburbs« premiered in Venice and Montreal and has also been selected for the Karlovy Vary, Cannes (Tous les Cinemas du Monde), and other festivals. Suburbs has received six international and national awards and was selected for the Variety Critics' Choice: Europe Now in 2005. Möderndorfer's feature »Landscape N°2« premiered in Venice. It has received eight international and national awards and was the Slovenian candidate for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film 2009. »Inferno« was premiered in Busan and selected also for Tallinn, Montpellier, FEST, Chicago, Edinburgh, etc. It has received six international and national awards.
Vinko Möderndorfer graduated in theatre direction from the Acad¬emy for Theatre, Radio, Film and Television in Ljubljana. He directs also the¬atre plays, opera performances and television works. He has directed 16 TV works and more than 100 performances. As a writer, he has published over 70 books.

Director’s Statement

We live in the times when lack of empathy in interpersonal relations is one of the most acute problems in the world. Day after day, a brutal and ruthless neoliberalism is wreaking havoc on human relationships and compassion for the pain of the other, pushing the world into an all-out war. Empathy, compassion, sensitivity to the pain of other people, all this seems to be disappearing from the world map. I find it important to tell a story where human relationships fully come to life and where sensibility towards the other as an important value of our civilization is restored again. The world we're living in is the world of a deadlock. We're stuck in some kind of civilizational standstill from which it is impossible to escape without mutual understanding and respect for basic human and humanist values. This is what the Deadlock film is for. The idea for the film comes from everyday events, from precarious relations between people, from loneliness in social housing neighbourhoods where people have no idea about their neighbour's struggle, and at the same time from the arrogance of the wealthy, not just of tycoons, but also of similarly-minded rulers. All this is a constant reminder that we're living in a world where some people think that anything can be bought. But no. Human heart cannot be bought. You can only give it to your fellow man as the biggest gift philantropy can give.

Vinko Möderndorfer