Bread and Milk

The medical staff go on strike, so Ivan is sent home a day earlier than expected from a rehabilitation programme for alcoholics. His first day at home is pleasant enough; filled with good intentions and hope for a better future, Ivan and his wife Sonja pick up where they left off in their family life and Ivan does his best to improve relations with their son Robi. Next morning, Sonja goes to work and sends Ivan to a shop to get bread and milk. On the way back, he bumps into Armando, an old schoolfriend he hasn’t seen for ten years. They have a drink together in a ‘taverna’ and Armando says that long ago, before Ivan and Sonja were together, he spent a night with Sonja. Ivan is so shocked by this news that he almost unconsciously empties the glass of whisky that was put in front of him despite his protests. This marks the start of a tragic love story about a family balancing on the thin line between heaven and hell.This both coarse and sensitive directing début by Jan Cvitkovic was shot in Tolmin (Slovenia), where the director himself grew up and where the tavernas, which were at first financed by the Socialist state, made a great impression on him. With tranquil camera work and well chosen black & white images, Cvitkovic reflects on the social conditions of the characters. In their desperate desire for mutual love and warmth, their errors take them further and further from their destination.