Biček's "The Family" declared best film of Critics' Week in Locarno
Biček's second major film, which covers a ten-year period in the life of the main character, including his first love, fatherhood and a difficult separation, prevailed in the competition of seven innovative films not constrained by classical narration.
The festival's critic Jay Weissberg described Družina for Variety as "an impressive yet disturbing slice of cinema verite that follows a young man whose understanding of family is warped by circumstances".
Weissberg expects that the film, a Slovenian-Austrian co-production, will "create a buzz" at documentary film festivals.
What Marco Zucchi of the Locarno Film Festival feels can also be called a documentary version of Richard Linklater's Boyhood, was the first Slovenian film to make it into the Critics' Week section, founded in 1990 by the Swiss Association of Film Journalists.
The film, which will be screened today at the Sarajevo Film Festival, has underlined a remarkable career start for the 31-year-old Biček.
Three years ago his feature film Razredni Sovražnik (Class Enemy) won the award for best film at the International Film Critics' Week in Venice as well as the LUX Prize Audience Mention in Karlovy Vary.