The title refers to the solar eclipses of 1961 and 1999. The first eclipse was welcomed by Yugoslav people with inquiring gazes in the streets. 30 years later, the country started its descent into madness, ending its century long history in a series of bloody wars. The second eclipse was welcomed with drawn curtains by frustrated citizens subject to media manipulation and prone to conspiracy theories.
These natural phenomena serve as a parable for the eclipse of common sense, happening both on the national level with the country drowning in fratricidal war, and on a personal level with one of the protagonists experiencing serious mental issues.
Nataša Urban’s father is a mountaineer. As the wars raged, he continued climbing and kept a diary. This diary, focusing on peculiarities of nature and climbing, is used as the voice-over for Nataša’s film, serving as an example of how people who lived inside a war-torn country, but outside the war-struck areas, often tried to do the impossible – continue their lives normally.
The director Nataša Urban, together with the sound designer Svenn Jakobsen and composers Jared Blum and Bill Gould (known as the bassist of Faith No More), joins us on-stage for a conversation about the morality of choosing to ‘act normal’ in abnormal times.
Speakers
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