Café Astoria

The city of Maribor before the Second World War, and Maribor after its liberation mark the period in which the film Cafe Astoria is set. The story relates with a gentle melancholy and a slight irony the lives of a middle-class family: the cafe owner, his wife and their son. Through their individual destinies we become acquainted with the social and historical background of a by-gone era; the social and national differences of pre-war Maribor, divisions among the wealthy and poor, and nationally minded Slovenes and fanatic Germanophils. The first year after the war introduced the absurd characteristic cruel measures of the so-called revolutionary social transformations in which calamity and coincidence intervene, resulting in events of comic nature, of course, as seen from a safe distance of fifty years.

Directed by Jože Pogačnik, Café Astoria leans on a strong ensemble — Janez Hočevar, Lidija Kozlovič, Branko Šturbej — to carry a story that balances spectacle with character.

The film landed with audiences for its craft and performances, and remains one of the most talked-about drama titles of 1989.