WAKE ME

Waking up in a hospital, Rok attempts in vain to read something from his hands. An accident has left him with temporary memory loss – he doesn't even recognise his girlfriend Rina any more. The young man is only able to remember his native Jesenice, an industrial stronghold in Slovenia, and the former home there that he shared with his mother and brother. Rok and Rina depart from their residence in Bled, a touristic lakeside town, to travel back to Jesenice. While her boyfriend's former life remains an enigma to Rina, Rok urgently attempts to understand what caused him to leave his hometown in the first place. Gradually, he begins to put his past back together, like a puzzle whose pieces include a xenophobic group of friends, manipulation and violence. What can you do when your self is an "other"? Can the past simply be erased? Using powerful imagery, Marko Šantić treats relationships to migrants from parts of former Yugoslavia, in a cinematic examination that is also highly relevant far beyond Slovenia.