Experiencing Interruptions?

There is no Spoon

Jae-Bot happily exists inside of his programmed routine - which consists of reading a book in the park during the day and drinking beer next to a night club at night. However, the cycle in which Jae-Bot doesn’t question his reality gets broken after he’s “killed” by a mysterious dark figure. After that event, Jae-Bot realises there’s something wrong with the world, as well as the characters in it. He wants to go back to his programmed routine, but is unable to do so because of the dark figure constantly chasing him.

  • Tina Ljubenkov
    Director
  • Erik Kyle Lončar
    Assistant Director
    The Bleed, Speckturm, Loveheit
  • Tina Ljubenkov
    Writer
  • Luka Šatara
    Key Cast
    "Jae-Bot"
    Agape, Crno-bijeli svijet, Max Schmeling, Balkan Inc.
  • Nadja-Matija Fatović
    Key Cast
    "Dark Figure"
  • Tina Ljubenkov
    Director of Photography
  • Krešimir Štulina
    Camera Assistant
  • Marino Paliska
    Gaffer
  • Arts Academy in Split
    Production
  • Kino Klub Split
    Co-Production
  • Luka Eterović
    Poster Design
    Ctrl+Z
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    Žlica ne postoji
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Short, Student
  • Runtime:
    10 minutes 57 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    February 19, 2019
  • Production Budget:
    0 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Croatia
  • Country of Filming:
    Croatia
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    Yes
Director Biography - Tina Ljubenkov

Tina Ljubenkov is a M.A. student - department of Film and Video at the Arts Academy in Split (UMAS). As an award-winning photographer, she participated in many group photographic exhibitions as well as one group video installation exhibition. Throughout her studies she became a member of Kino klub Split and worked on several film projects on various positions, but her passion lies in both lighting and camera department. Aside from filming, Ljubenkov has always been interested in videogames. This passion eventually led to becoming a content creator and videographer for British videogame website Tomb of Ash (associated with Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix).

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Videogames have always been a big part of my life as a form of escapism into the world where anything is possible. You could be and you could do things beyond your imagination, but what fascinated me the most were the glitches, more specifically a program doing something it’s not supposed to be doing. Most of the time I spent my playthroughs by trying to break the system, get out of programmed boundaries to see what would happen. Some of the glitches I’ve encountered were quite scary because of their unpredictable nature.
The protagonist, Jae-Bot is exactly that; a program behaving the way it’s not supposed to, an anomaly in the system. Before he becomes a glitch, Jae-Bot is merely an NPC (non-playable character) who is defined by his programmed routine. All his existence lies in following rules of the simulated world he exists in. The Dark Figure is the player who accidentally encountered the anomaly Jae-Bot.

Most of the time Jae-Bot is positioned in wide-angle shots, in the lower thirds of the frame in order to distance him from the viewer. That is because he is not THE player, but a program existing within a simulation. The few times we see him up close and personal are the times he realises he didn’t “respawn” the way he was supposed to.

The spoon is the most powerful weapon in the game/simulation because it’s the bearer of the truth – there is no spoon, just like there is no world he exists in. Jae-Bot bent the rules of the system in order to go back to his programmed routine which begets the question is a glitch really a glitch since it still operates under the rules of a simulation?