Stronghold of Toughs

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.

The sights and sounds of the big game between Maribor and Olimpija.

The daily journey of the young deliverer of the Delo magazine. The contrast between the mood of a young vendor and the impressive photos of global events reported by the newspaper.

Milan, a successful company director, is replaced, and he decides to find out why.