by Maximiliano Crocamo
Interview: Producer Jerca Jerič, director and writer Ester Ivakič, writer Nila Jurman
A new Slovenian feature making its debut at the 43rd Torino Film Festival on Nov. 24 is drawing early attention for its unusual title and quietly resonant themes. Ida Who Sang So Badly Even the Dead Rose Up and Joined Her in Song, the first feature by 32-year-old filmmaker Ester Ivakič, will also screen at the Trieste Film Festival in January 2026.
Presented on Monday in Trieste by the production company Temporama and representatives of the Slovenski Filmski Center, the film traces the delicate transition between childhood and adolescence through the eyes of a 10-year-old girl confronted with the looming loss of her grandmother. Ivakič, already recognized for her award-winning short and medium-length work, attended the presentation alongside the film’s young lead, Lana Marić; cinematographer Rok Kajzer Nagode; co-screenwriter Nika Jurman; and Trieste Film Festival artistic director Nicoletta Romeo.
The film’s title, intentionally long and evocative, signals the blend of dark whimsy and emotional realism that marks Ivakič’s debut. While its hints of gothic fantasy nod toward Tim Burton, the film is rooted in a sharply observed sense of time and place: a rural community on the Slovenian-Hungarian border in the late 1970s and early 1980s, before the distractions of the digital age. “Through the world of childhood solitude,” Ivakič said, “I wanted to show the space between everyday lightness and the shadow of an inevitable loss.”
Shot in the Prekmurje region and in the hills around Škofja Loka in Upper Carniola, the film draws inspiration from the novel Noben glas (Neither Voice) by Slovenian writer Suzana Tratnik. It follows Ida, played by Marić, as she becomes convinced that singing can keep her ailing grandmother alive — an idea that gains force after a mysterious episode at the local cemetery. Her plan falters when she fails to enter the school choir, but the experience opens a summer of small revelations: a deepening friendship, her parents’ separation and her first recognition of change as a constant.
The cast spans three generations. Alongside Marić and Liza Muršić, who plays her friend Tereska, the film features Croatian actress Judita Franković Brdar as Ida’s mother; Slovenian stage and screen actor Matej Puc as her father; and 74-year-old Milena Stropnik, a retired nurse appearing on camera for the first time, as the grandmother.
Producers Andraž and Jerca Jerič of Temporama said the film’s selection in Torino’s main competition — the only entry from Slovenia or southeastern Europe — reflects growing international interest in Slovenian cinema. The film recently received a special mention from the Cottbus Film Festival jury, which praised Ivakič’s “masterful” direction and described the work as “an evocative and sincere testimony of innocence and spirituality.”
Ivakič, who studied at the Academy for Theatre, Radio, Film and Television in Ljubljana, has been considered a promising voice in Slovenian cinema since her student film Srdohrd received a special jury mention in 2016. Her 2021 short Magical Castle Is Here Now won the Slovenian Film Award at the FeKK Ljubljana Short Film Festival.
Ida Who Sang So Badly Even the Dead Rose Up and Joined Her in Song will premiere nationally at the Torino Film Festival on Nov. 24, with additional screenings on Nov. 26 and 28. Its Italian festival run will continue in Trieste early next year, ahead of its domestic release in Slovenia.
