Double Deal

Optics Trade’s short thriller Double Deal premiered in Slovenska Bistrica

Optics Trade can now add one more accomplishment to the repertoire – a short film. On September 2, 2023, Kino Slovenska Bistrica (Slovenska Bistrica Cinema) premiered our thriller Double Deal, which follows the story of a private detective Niko Kalash in his endeavor to solve a complex case. The film was made possible thanks to the generous help of director Renato Bratkovič and director of photography Nino Verdnik. The rest of the crew, including all the actors, are members of the Optics Trade team.

Private Detective Niko Kalash Tries to Solve a Complex Case in Slovenska Bistrica

Kino Slovenska Bistrica (Slovenska Bistrica Cinema) premiered our short film Double Deal on September 2, 2023. It’s an exciting thriller that follows a private director Niko Kalash (Žiga Tarandek), who gets approached by a local magnate Ada Ritchie (Maša Moličnik). Ada’s husband (Žan Mišel Jerman) is cheating on her, and she wishes to find out the name of the husband’s mistress. Niko dives into the case, but he soon learns that cheating is far from being the husband’s worst wrongdoing. The story begins to entangle, and our private detective realizes that the stakes in this case are much higher than he anticipated.

The whole story unravels in Slovenska Bistrica, which is also where all the filming happened. The film is a little less than twenty minutes long, and the premiere attracted a considerable number of viewers. We were, of course, pleased to see such a turnout, especially considering the fact that it’s been quite some time since Slovenska Bistrica Cinema has been so full. This proves that the people of the town are eager to see more of such events, especially coming from local creators. Since we, the Optics Trade members, pride ourselves on the connection we have with Slovenska Bistrica, we are happy that we could make this step in the right direction.

The premiere was followed by an invitation to our headquarters where we prepared food and drinks for all the viewers to celebrate with us. On top of a successful premiere, we had an additional reason to celebrate since the event also marked the third anniversary of our first brick-and-mortar store. The gathering lasted until late night hours, and from what we could gather, the reviews of the Double Deal were overwhelmingly positive.

To do our part in helping the victims of recent catastrophic floodings across Slovenia, we also collected donations which were then sent to the places and people in need.

The Idea to Film a Short Movie was Born More Than Four Years Ago

It’s not unusual to hear people wonder about our motives for filming Double Deal. We get it… We are a multi-national ecommerce company, selling optics and outdoor gear for hunting and sports shooting. It’s only natural to ask how we got the idea to make a short film and especially why would we actually go through with it.

The idea is quite old – more than four years old, to be precise. It happened during a completely random and unrelated meeting between Optics Trade’s CEO Teodor Štimec and his friend and producer (among other things) Nino Verdnik. Toying with the idea, Nino introduced a screenwriter and director Renato Bratkovič to Teodor when they met the next time. At this meeting, Renato pulled a small notebook out of his pocket and quickly started drafting a story which later developed into the story of the Double Deal.

Answering the why is even simpler – because we can and because it’s fun.

Our CEO Teodor Štimec has an interesting philosophy about work which states that if you’re going to spend almost half of your life at work, you should at least have some fun during it. This is why our team often heads to exciting trips and adventures during which we make memories and take photos that are posted all over the walls of our company’s headquarters. They are there to remind us that we had fun and that there’s more to the workplace than just grinding away for 8 hours a day.

Double Deal, on the other hand, elevated this to a whole new level. Making this short film was an adventure that will leave a much more lasting trail. It is a reminder that Optics Trade isn’t just a successful company from Slovenska Bistrica, but it’s rather a story about the people who work here and can also have fun doing it.

Meet the Crew

One of the many peculiarities of our film is that the whole crew, apart from Renato and Nino, came from our own ranks. None of us had any prior experience with acting or filming, which made everything even more fun.

	Renato Bratkovič comes from Slovenska Bistrica. He is a writer and creator of crime stories, best known for his collection of short crime stories titled “Alibi” and his debut novel Plavalec (The Swimmer).
	Nino Verdnik is a photographer and moviemaker from Slovenska Bistrica. He is very experienced in creating visual stories for major companies in Slovenia and its vicinity. For the past couple of years, he’s also been making video content with talented writers and directors.

 

The main actors in the short film Double Deal are:

• Žiga Tarandek – Niko Kalash
• Maja Pahič – Mimi Larouievix
• Maša Moličnik – Ada Ritchie
• Žan Mišel Jerman – Ada’s husband
• Teodor Štimec – Teodore Von Markovik

The supporting cast:

• Jurij Cigler - Muc - security guard
• Nino Anošek - security guard
• Maja Trglavčnik – a cop
• Renato Brodar – a cop
• Polona Kraner – a forensic
• Klavdija Štriker – a forensic
• Špela Vidmar – an eyewitness
• Aljaž Štimec – an eyewitness
• Nina Zelenko – an eyewitness
• Maruša Malovrh – an eyewitness

The filming crew members:

• Polona Kraner
• Nina Pavletič
• Tjaša Brglez

We would also like to thank our partners who made this project possible:

• Smartclip
• Perunika
• A25
• Avto Triglav
• Andrej Tkavc
• Ernest Fišinger

Media’s Response

It’s not every day you could see an e-commerce company shoot its own short film, let alone a thriller. This is why Double Deal attracted attention from the media as well. The event was covered by Studio Bistrica. A local news website Bistričan.si and the newspaper Panorama also reported about it.

Where Can You Watch Double Deal

There is a great chance we’re going to screen Double Deal in Slovenska Bistrica’s cinema again soon, and we are also doing our best to get some of the smaller cinemas to play it as well.

On top of that, we will upload it to our YouTube channel in the future.