Joyce’s Pupil

A young man learns English in 1914 Trieste from James Joyce, who repeatedly describes an oil lamp. Years later, in 1941, this same man must flee his country, and he becomes the Slovenian voice of British radio. On his return to Yugoslavia, he falls foul of the new communist authorities. The characters who populate the stories of Drago Jancar stand at the periphery of tragic histories, seeing the ground opening beneath their feet but remaining above the pit.