It’s not always about competition. Produced by Leeway Collective & Balkan River Defence, with support from NRS and Chums, Streamers, Steamers, & Struggles on the Krka is a new film highlighting float-fishing on Slovenia’s Krka River where camaraderie is more important than catching fish.
Four boaters and fishing fiends — the Moustached One, The Young One, The Vegan, and The Girl — descend on wine country in Slovenia to revel in the food, the castles, the spas and, most importantly, the fishing.
In this land of sunshine and vineyards, these four are here for one thing and one thing only: the fish (and, well, okay, maybe some wine). But their easy-going float quickly turns into a fishing competition. The rules? Simple. Bigger fish = bigger points. And whoever lands the most species of the river’s 44 native species—and the most points—takes home the glory. (Spoiler alert: the girl won.)
But the real takeaway from the film, scripted by Rok Rozman and filmed and edited by Rožle Bregar, is the simple joy of being on the water with the people and recreating responsibly.
“When it comes to the comic and light-hearted atmosphere in our short films, the main point we want to make is two-fold…and it’s pretty simple: we are fed up with thousands of films that try to make everything epic, heroic, and mythical where there is no real basis for that,” says Rozman. “At the same time, our crew just happens to be a bunch of funny individuals that, if placed in the right place at the time, will surely deliver some sort of comedy. Hard topics are like life, best consumed and digested with laughter. And, if we are honest, we also like the challenge of packing a sometimes complex message into a short and funny vessel.”
In this case, that vessel was both their NRS raft as well as the film itself.
“Just going out to fish with your friends is all you need to fall in love with the river. And once you love a river, you feel a simple desire to protect it,” he says.
We caught up with him for a few more thoughts on what makes the film so special:
PL: What inspired you to make it?
Rozman: We at Balkan River Defence and Leeway Collective have been making a short film series on the topic of paddling, fishing and river conservation for three consecutive years now. Each year we change the river and approach and it’s great to see that the films are getting great recognition and they are winning awards at film festivals. So now that we have started the series, it will be hard to stop making such films. The main reason behind making it, though, is the desire to bring forward sometimes complex topics in simple and humorous way, which is often easily digestible.
PL: What was the most fun part?
Rozman: The rafting and fishing. Making a film always brings a ton of pre-production work, then a lot of filming, and at the end a whole lot of time spent behind computer editing the footage, so the most fun part is always doing the actual activity.
PL: What do you hope people take away from it?
Rozman: I hope people take away the fact that simple is often the best. That you don’t need to go to some super far away destination, that it doesn’t need to be the biggest trophy fish, and that competition often kills the essence of things. Simplicity and good company is what a modern lifestyle misses most, and bold honesty even more. We also hope that the film will show people why it’s necessary to do activities in nature where we leave no trace if we want to keep on doing them.
PL: How great is the river running (and fishing) in Slovenia?
Rozman: Slovenia is most famous for river running through our emerald beauty, the Soča River. But we have many other rivers that might not be as stunning, but are still very beautiful and romantic, like the Sava, Mura, Kolpa and Krka. Same for fishing, The Soča River and its tributaries are world-famous for their marble trout, but the Sava and its tributaries hold the elusive Huchen, so it’s a fly-fishing paradise.
Watch the film here:
#streamerssteamersandstrugglesonthekrka #flyfishing #leavenotrace #slovenia
You can view the full film on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/M78NWuU6Zd8?si=9TZbqKogCfHjyHT_
