The reckognised theatre director and author Herman is creating a new performance, which is supposed to be better than all of his successful projects until then. He invites all of his friends and the people he has worked with until then to participate, including his girlfriend, the actress Žana and his friends for many years, the actor Gregor and the set designer Miloš.
A spectacular performance, which is supposed to open a prestigious theatre festival, is to be performed in the open, and the manager of the theatre Lukman presents it to the audience of the festival, to the theatre critics and to guests from abroad with a magnificent reception.
As soon as at the reception and especially later at the rehearsals many secrets and manipulations start to get exposed, with which Herman wishes to bring to light and to make fun of the relationships between the performers in his performance. In addition to this it turns out that the drama text that Herman uncovered as a sensational discovery from medieval Iceland theatre is only one of the many Herman's mystifications.
This film was my way of dealing with a certain question:
What is love like in our egocentric world?
Can love exist in a world in which everybody pays attention only to him/herself?
In this sense, The Ruins is a film about love; a film about people who would like to love, but are unable to. In a way, it is a film about emotional invalids. This film entered my life at a time of my personal crisis, when I was dealing with feelings of disappointment and discontent.
However, through the process of making this film I realised how ridiculous we can be, if we become preoccupied with our own problems. So, the film turned out to be both - sad and ridiculous, that is absurd and comical. Just like love. And just like life itself.
Janez Burger
Kolodvorska 2-4
SI - 1000 Ljubljana
Slovenija / Slovenia
