In the excellent Slovenian drama I Am Frank, the title character returns to Slovenia after years abroad. Frank has some baggage, so hardly anyone is happy to see him back, including his own mother. Frank’s brother Brane greets him warmly, but warily.
Frank is one of those opinionated, contentious and perpetually dissatisfied people who think nobody can get along with because of their unbending principles; but it’s really because he’s too self absorbed to understand any one else’s point of view. A Marxist true believer, he’s let Slovenia after the dissolution of Communist Yugoslavia, but has now left Israel in outrage after his kibbutz was privatized. Frank leaves no emotional scab unpicked and has never left well enough alone.
Frank and Barnes father has died leaving an unexpected fortune. Brane, a successful if shady entrepreneur, starts thinking about how to invest the inheritance and get richer. Frank is consumed by the fact that the windfall must have been built illegitimately. What Frank uncovers leads us into a paranoid thriller and tumult between the brothers and Brane’s dangerous business associates.
Writer-director Mitod Pevec has created a marvelous charcter in the charismtic misfit Frank, well played by Janez Skof. Valtar Gragan is equally good in the less showy part of Brane, the guy with his own business and family challenges, trying to hold it all together despite his volatile brother.
Cinequest hosts the US premiere of I Am Frank. which is one of the world cinema highlights of the festival.