CHILD IN TIME

A film about a child caught in a time of socialism, catholicism and rock.
A film about a family, state and spiritual universe.
A film about war in human communication, escape and love.
“A little Troy of Maja Weiss. A baroque’n’roll film.”, as discribed by Peter Braatz, the editor of this film.

ANA (5) and PETER (7) are driving home with their parents. Father is heavily drunk and arguing with the mother. Scared of father’s rage, Ana and Peter escape from the car and hide in the church. Suddenly priest comes and locks all the church doors unaware there are two children hiding inside.
Ana and Peter are caught in the darkness, surrounded by images in the church: heaven and hell, frescoes showing stories of human diseases; life and death.
Few hours pass when Peter finally finds a light. Mother and the priest who were all this time searching for children see the light. Meanwhile, father gets sober as well. They all run into the church but all they find are the remains of Ana’s and Peter’s supper…

»Child in Time used to be entitled The Wrath of God. More than a decade ago, this script was rejected by the then Ministry of Culture, perhaps on the grounds of being too religious. However, my sister the producer Ida Weiss liked it so much that she applied with it to the Slovenian Film Fund, which approved it. Since we also needed approval from the Church authorities (which we couldn’t get for The Wrath of God), we adapted the script in a way that it became acceptable, and thus Child in Time was created. When we started filming in a beautiful church on Sladka Gora, the lead, a 5 year old girl, decided not to participate. Panicking, we replaced her with the girl Anja. Anja, whom I addressed as Leni R., stubbornly rebelled against me in the main scene of the film and so the crucial scene was not shot and thus an entirely different story was created – and with it Child in Time.« Maja Weiss (2005)

• Berlin International Film Festival, Germany, 10.2. –20.2.2005in competition
• Borderland Filmdays in Selb, Germany, 31.3. –3.4.2005
• Shadowline Salerno FilmFestival, Italy, 19.4. –24.4.2005in competition
• Seattle International Film Festival, USA, 19.5. –12.6.2005woman in cinema
• Crossing Europe FilmFestival Linz, Austria, 26.4. –1.5.2005
• FilmFestival, Vienna, Austria, 6.5. –10.5.2005
• Maremetraggio International Film Festival, Trieste, Italy, 1.7. –7.7.2005Cei Section Maremetraggio
• Warsawa IFF, Poland, 7.10. –16.10.2005
• AArhus IFF, Denmark, 25.10. –30.10.2005
• Festival of Films for Children and Young Adults, Teheran, Iran, 29.9. –4.10.2005
• Damascus IFF, Syria, 20.11. –27.11.2005in competition