Svetlana Makarovič

Tatjana in Motherland is a partly animated documentary essay about Slovenia and its men. It is a “documentary-tale” of how Slovenian society has been disintegrating in an invisible way. The story will unveil a Slovenian Oedipus archetype of the possessive martyr mother type and her relationship with her son, in which she through emotional manipulation, by constantly creating feelings of guilt, burdens her son to such a degree, that he remains dependent on her for the rest of his life. In order to put this relationship to its best use, all Slovenian governing structures have elevated mother figure on the level of a saint and have assigned to it the cultish role. The result of the Slovenian maternal cult is a typical Slovene male, who is pathologically obsessed with his mother.

An educationalist - a 'thief of childhood' becomes alarmed over the inappropriateness of old, fairy tale stories for children. The old book like the one about witches and monsters in her hands suddenly springs to life. Out from it escape Sophie the Witch and her companions: Black Claw, Gray Nightmare and the Red Straw Monster, as well as the water-sprite Aquiline, the shy little dwarf Tiny Peat, and the enchantress Lady Spider. They scatter among the town and woods and performed all kinds of mischief. Sophie just can't get her broom to fly, because she became too fat. The monsters, disappointed over the century in which we live, return back into the book, the witch Sophie loses her magic power and becomes 'Aunt Sophie', and Tiny Peat has changed into a black cat.