Black and On The Sunny Side of the Alps

Just "discovered" this provocative short film while cruising the 'nets. It appears they got an all-black cast to play Slovenians. The director (and local dude), Janez Burger, was trying engage Slovenian people and get a sense of how racist/tolerant people were, so he took money from the national film fund telling them he was making a "promotional movie" for the country and shot this. Too good. Gotta get my hands on it. And this picture kinda needs to be a fixture on this site.



DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT (from their VERY NOISY, BE CAREFUL website)

‘ON THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE ALPS’ used to be the slogan of a promotion campaign of the Slovene Tourist Board, which wanted to present Slovenia in the best possible light – as a beautiful sub-alpine country, full of hospitable and friendly people. However, recent racist and xenophobic events present Slovenia in a far darker light. It is most concerning that racist and xenophobic rhetoric is being used also by political elites, but even more concerning is the fact that their populist tendencies find fertile ground which helps their political credit to grow. This film is a reaction to the increasingly bizarre situation in my country. A film about a typical Slovene family, which would never find shape if finance officials knew that this is the first Slovene black-African film.

ON THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE ALPS is a film about Slovenia. About a beautiful country where happiness, joy, mutual understanding and tolerance prevail. Nobody ever says anything to hurt anybody. A neighbour is always ready to help his neighbour. Birds sing merrily, red carnations blossom on balconies and there is an inviting smell coming from village kitchens. The sun always shines in this country. The sun also shines from the hearts of the people which makes this country the sunniest in the world. Even sunnier than Africa.