Tomaž Šantl inter­vju by Nikola Racan

N.R:
Tomzi, it’s been ten years since Sol­sti­cij premiered. The first time we skated (and filmed) togeth­er was in Pula with Robi (Kocijan) in 2012, dur­ing water ration­ing and a severe drought. The weath­er scen­ario is sim­il­ar this year — sum­mer isn’t let­ting up; it’s hit 35 degrees here for the six­teenth day in a row… back then, I used to see signs on cars read­ing: “I’d wash it, but I can’t!”

T.Š:
I hold that memory of the first time we filmed togeth­er very dear. Me, Robi, you, and Fer­učo at the dry foun­tain — it was dry due to water ration­ing. That was prob­ably about 14 years ago. At the time, I was­n’t really into the skate scene, but I was totally blown away by your wider crew and wondered why we had­n’t met soon­er. I got a huge boost of motiv­a­tion, and over the next four years we filmed a ton of tricks.

N.R:
Anniversar­ies roll around quickly; to me, what mat­ters more is what they leave behind. Nos­tal­gia is some­what part of the story of Sol­sti­cij — and, I’d say, of To Ni Hec. How do you view nos­tal­gia, or — to put it a bit more bluntly — how do you view aging?

T.Š:
Nos­tal­gia has always repulsed me. Espe­cially when I was young­er, look­ing back was hard for me; I think that’s partly why I could­n’t accept praise. When you’re young, you just rush for­ward — which is prob­ably a good thing. Now, nos­tal­gia hits me often; I guess that’s just part of get­ting older.

N.R:
I’ve built a won­der­ful friend­ship with you — one I’m end­lessly grate­ful for. See­ing us as par­ents now, I feel that the love is still evid­ent, even though we don’t hang out or see each oth­er quite like we used to — pre­cisely because of that par­ent­hood. Do you miss those “free” days, or is it simply wiser to say that these are the best days of our lives?

T.Š:
Some­thing def­in­itely clicked from the moment we first met. We share a bond — one that I don’t think is just about us both being film­makers and skaters, or even par­ents now. What I miss most about the past is the spon­taneity. We used to plan a skate trip on the spur of the moment… and after just a few days with you guys, I’d already be dream­ing in Croatian.

N.R:
I won’t ask you any­thing about skat­ing — it doesn’t make sense, since I know how we both feel about it — but I will ask you some­thing about pho­to­graphy. To what extent is it a hobby (a source of pleas­ure) for you today, versus (for­tu­nately) a job?

T.Š:
I’ve been mak­ing a liv­ing from pho­to­graphy and video for about 15 years now. Pho­to­graphy has always felt more per­son­al — more “mine” — and even though I shoot few­er per­son­al pro­jects these days, I still really enjoy it. It’s a great outlet!

N.R:
OK, so here we are on the Riva, cel­eb­rat­ing ten years of a film that had more screen­ings than Titan­ic; Sol­sti­cij is finally going online. I’ll be hit­ting “Pub­lish” on Sat­urday after­noon. What’s next for you after Vladi­mir? Are we going for a sequel?

T.Š: <3