The Little Wire Girl (2018) is a drama-opera written by Marjan Nečak, Maja Hrgović and Ana Bunteska about a female violinist travelling by train across Europe. In the course of her journey and stopovers at various railway stations, the story of her life unfolds, from a little girl who wanted to become a top musician, while her father spent the money earmarked for her school fees, to an old woman, still searching to find her spot under the European sky, having spent her entire life as a busker. The reference to Andersen’s »little match girl« is multi-layered. A harsh economic situation, a complicated relationship with the unsuccessful father, a search to find one’s place in contemporary Europe, which is increasingly turning into a place of social exclusion confined by barbed wire, walls and general restrictions ̶ the story is a reminder of a position of many gifted individuals who are currently seeking shelter to fully develop their potentials. However, Europe often turns out to be nothing but »a pale mother«, mastering to perfection how to refuse asylum seeker applications and crush their high hopes. With fathers who had no idea how to protect their children or were unable to look after them, the children are nothing but orphans on windswept train platforms of our cold, alienated technocratic world. Driven by an unstoppable need for artistic expression, they seem to cling to every opportunity, as slim as it may be, to enrich their own lives and the lives of their random passers-by.
This intimate drama, set on the background of current events in contemporary Europe, takes place in a borderline space between the real world and the dream world, in plausible, but often unpleasant situations at border crossings and checkpoints, memories and visions intertwining times and languages, music and poetry, bitterness and beauty of life.

A journey by a female violinist travelling across Europe in the rhythm of a train in search of a better »tomorrow«. Violin strings are signposts, turning into a barbed wire obstructing her way towards a desired goal. A metaphorical dramatic and music score, drifting effortlessly between various music styles, such as rock, pop, electronic music with a deep resonance of circus sounds, to operatic emotional culmination and rendition by two soloists.

Marjan Nečak

*Cameramen Marin Lukanović, Annick Christiaens, Denis Van Laeken. Grateful acknowledgment is made to the NRK Production for the use of extracts from a documentary Bergensbanen.