Feature film
The Tenth Brother
Deseti brat
Vojko Duletič · 1982
Synopsis
In 1840, Lovro Kvas arrives at Slemenice castle as a tutor and falls in love with Manica, the lord's daughter. Close by prowls Martinek Spak, known as the tenth brother: the illegitimate son of Piškav, master of the neighbouring estate, he has returned to the country to take revenge on the father who abandoned him as a child. A quarrel soon sets him against Marijan, Piškav's legitimate son, and the secrets the two houses had kept hidden begin to surface, at the risk of sweeping away the young tutor's love as well.
Context
Duletič wrote the screenplay from the novel by Josip Jurčič, directed the film and edited it. The colour cinematography is by Mile de Gleria, the sets by Mirko Lipužič; the music borrows an excerpt from César Franck's symphony. Radko Polič plays Martinek, alongside Bert Sotlar, Stevo Žigon, Štefka Drolc, Matjaž Višnar and Jana Habjan. The filmmaker said that the public expected the rhythm, the romance and the speech of the novelist, and that it received a distanced costume drama, an unusual film. Restored digitally in 2021, the Jurčič year, it was shown on 10 December at Višnja Gora.
Who it is for
An hour and a half of period film, based on a classic of the Slovene novel, Josip Jurčič's The Tenth Brother.
Prizes and reception
Young actor prize for Matjaž Višnar at the National Film Week in Celje in 1982; restored version in 2021.