Film Matinee: Sub Persona and Common Pear

For the first of a series of film matinees as part of BLOOM, Andreja Hribernik has selected two short films by young Slovenian filmmakers who, through their projects, explore the relationship between humans and trees in an artistically investigative manner. Whether in largely untouched virgin forests, of which there are now only a few left in Europe, or in cultivated orchards: the human influence is undeniable. Over millennia, a complex interdependence between trees and humans has developed. The contrast between nature and culture has not only in the Anthropocene transformed into a shared destiny, ranging from sustainable forestry to the preservation of biodiversity, which is essential for survival. The motif of the tree as the strong plant – it requires great physical effort to fell it and in many cases it even survives forest fires – stands, beyond ecology, for resistance and resilience.

Sub Persona, PLATEAURESIDUE, SLO, 2019 (20 mins, original version with English subtitles)

Common Pear, Gregor Božič, SLO/UK, 2025 (15 mins, original version with English subtitles)

In Sub Persona, the duo PLATEAURESIDUE explores the significance and ethics of human forest management. The short film, which forms part of an artistic research project, emphasises humanity’s shared responsibility to employ modern methods to understand the complexity of the self-regulating mechanisms of forest ecosystems and to develop sustainable management techniques based on the interconnection of ecological, economic and cultural functions – functions that are all too often taken for granted by humans.

In a not-too-distant future ravaged by the climate crisis, a team of scientists analyses archive footage of farmers from the past to understand their connection to the land and the soil. With the short film Common Pear, Gregor Božič continues his long-term research into old and endemic Mediterranean fruit varieties, in which he collaborates with fruit growers from the Italian-Slovenian border region, collecting stories about the old varieties discovered and establishing a gene bank orchard, amongst other things.