Shoes from Tri­este

A fleeting memory of an old woman looking back at her youth brings about a moment of elegance in times of the after-war misery. In recent years I have been extensively researching my home region, the countryside in western Slovenia. There I was collecting stories, people, places to feed my imagination as well as to reach with them vivid images and memories from my childhood. During these searches several different people told me the same story about their dancing shoes. Having been working on land from their early age, local feasts were the most awaited social events for young people from remote parts of the region. In order to keep their only non-working shoes clean for the dance, they were willing to walk for several hours barefoot or with their wooden working clogs to reach the dance floor. It seems, a simple pair of shoes made it possible for people to change their perspective and appreciation of themselves. This short film is an attempt to jump to another time to recreate there a small emotional journey and show with it the ordinary life thorugh a microscope glass and to hopefully touch with it its core – the human dignity.