Srpski
REGIONAL PANORAMA
The Dobrudja Saga
2022 / 27’, Romania, Serbia, Documentary
Written and directed by Siniša Dragin
Produced by Raico Cornea, Predrag Jakovljević
Cast: Marko Adžić
Voice over: Dan Condurache
Production company: Uniunea Jurnaliștilor din Mass-media Minorităților Etnice, Oktobar film
Supported by Departamentul pentru Relații Interetnice
The end of WWI in 1918 also meant the end of one of the greatest empires of the time: Austria-Hungary. There were various causes, one of them being the soldiers of its own army refusing to fight. Not all of them, of course. Who were those soldiers? What exactly motivated them to do so? Živan Krkuš, born in the village of Zlatica in the far east of the empire, was one of those defectors…
World premiere
Born in Kula, Yugoslavia. Director, screenwriter, cinematographer and writer; auteur of feature and documentary films. Graduated from the Academy of Film and Theater in Bucharest, Romania, in 1991, and obtained his PhD in 2020 with a dissertation on Shamanic Journey, Initiation Formula in Feature Film. His first short film, Tristetea aurului negru/The Sorrows of Black Gold, won the Grand Prix at the Oberhausen Film Festival in 1994. His first feature film, Lunga calatorie cu trenul/The Long Train Journey, won the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) Award for Best Screenplay in 1998 in Geneva. The second feature film, În fiecare zi Dumnezeu ne saruta pe gura/Everyday God Kisses Us in the Mouth, won the 2001 Silver Pyramid at the Cairo Film Festival and the 2002 Tiger Award in Rotterdam. If the Seed Doesn’t Die won the Dioraphte Award in Rotterdam in 2011. In 2014, the film Forest won the most inventive feature-length documentary award at the International Film Festival Visions du Réel in Nyon, Switzerland. The short film Sorry (2016) had its world premiere at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. His feature film Black Fish is in its final stages.
HOMMAGE: BORIVOJ DOVNIKOVIĆ BORDO
1001 DRAWINGS (1960, 14’)
Directed by Dušan Vukotić
Produced by Zagreb Film
This documentary-animated work from the late central part of the opus of the world’s great animated filmmaker Dušan Vukotić is perhaps the most unusual but also the most direct transition between reality and fantasy. The auteur found this magical link, not only for the sake of an ironic gag, in an overcrowded, slow-running city tram, wasting precious time of a housewife, a businessman, a tourist and a shy creator played by Vukotić’s colleague, then young Borivoj Dovniković.
THE CEREMONY (1965, 03′ 36”)
Written, directed and animated by Borivoj Dovniković Bordo
Produced by Zagreb Film
In front of the wall, a group of six people arrange themselves as if for a photoshoot. The seventh person runs the ceremony and (like a photographer) checks the frame through his fingers, gives instructions for regrouping with his hands. The set-up is fine. The camera pans and reveals a firing squad ready to shoot…
CURIOSITY (1966, 08′ 09”)
Directed and animated by Borivoj Dovniković Bordo
Written by Borivoj Dovniković Bordo, Dragutin Vunak
Produced by Zagreb Film
An animated film about curiosity, for which no cure has been found to date.
KREK (1967, 10′)
Directed and animated by Borivoj Dovniković Bordo
Written by Zlatko Grgić i Borivoj Dovniković Bordo
Produced by Zagreb Film
A young man takes his best friend, Krek the frog, to the army service. The strict corporal tries to break the main hero’s spirit and turn him into a true, heartless soldier, but the frog’s voice signals his bond with life and humanity. The film won the Silver Bear award at the festival in Berlin and the first prize in Gabrovo (Bulgaria).
SECOND CLASS PASSENGER (1974, 11’)
Written and directed by Borivoj Dovniković Bordo
Animated by Borivoj Dovniković Bordo, Turido Pauš, Zvonimir Delač
Produced by Zagreb Film
While travelling by train in second class, a lonely passenger tries but fails to get closer to a series of unusual companions… The film won the first prize for a film longer than three minutes at the World Animated Film Festival in Zagreb and the Silver Medal for Animated Film at the Yugoslav Documentary and Short Film Festival in Belgrade.
THE FLOWER LOVERS (1970, 10′)
Written, directed and animated by Borivoj Dovniković Bordo
Produced by Zagreb Film, Corona Cinematografica
The florist’s business is going slow until he starts selling exploding flowers…
ONE DAY OF LIFE (1982, 10′)
Written, directed and animated by Borivoj Dovniković Bordo
Produced by Zagreb Film, Kinematografi
A lonely factory worker lives a monotonous life until he meets a friend who persuades him to drown his boredom in alcohol … The film won the Gold Medal for Animated Film at the Yugoslav Documentary and Short Film Festival in Belgrade and the Silver Hugo Award at the Chicago International Film Festival.
A STRANGE BIRD (1969, 10′)
Directed by Borivoj Dovniković Bordo
Written by Borivoj Dovniković Bordo, Dragutin Vunak
Animated by Vjačeslav Katjonočkin
Produced by Zagreb Film, Sojuzmultfilm Moskva
Something unusual happened in the bird colony: an alarm clock hatched from an egg. Everything was fine until one day when the alarm clock broke down…
SILENCE (2009, 8′ 24”)
Written and directed by Borivoj Dovniković Bordo
Animated by Borivoj Dovniković Bordo, Pavao Štalter
Produced by Zagreb Film
What happens when a deaf person suddenly starts to hear?
BORIVOJ DOVNIKOVIĆ BORDO (Osijek, 1930 – Zagreb, 2022)
Director, animator, cartoonist, caricaturist and illustrator. Started as an animator (The Great Meeting and Happy Experience, 1951, by W. Neugebauer), continued as a cartoonist and animator (Goaal! 1952, by N. Neugebauer; Romeo and Juliet, 1958, by I. Vrbanić; A Little Train, 1959, by D. Vunak…). Auteur of the animated films A Doll (1961), The Case of the Wicked Mouse (1962), Olle Torero (1963), Untitled (1964, awarded in Belgrade and Oberhausen), Costumed Rendezvous (1965), Curiosity (1966, Leipzig Prize), Krek (1968, Berlin Prize), A Strange Bird (1969), The Flower Lovers (1970, Krakow and Trieste Prizes), Maneuvers 1971), Second Class Passenger (1974, awards in Zagreb and Belgrade), N.N. (1977), Learning to Walk (1978, awarded in Zagreb and Belgrade). He was also the auteur of many successful commercials. One of the Zagreb School of Animated Film champions, with classical figural animation background, Borivoj successfully linked traditional openness and gags with modern syntheses of motion drawing. He personally drew and animated his films. A master of psychological caricature, he made the characters likeable with individual features and the situations funny and believable. Some of his works are among the most successful Yugoslav animated films.
Film selection: VIENNA SHORTS FESTIVAL
International short film festival in Vienna that annually in spring makes around 300 films from all over the world accessible to the audience and the international industry in the best possible way – whether in the cinema or the museum, whether in digital or virtual space. The festival is a qualifying event for the Austrian Film Award, the British Film Award BAFTA, the European Film Award and the Oscars® and is one of two EU-funded film festivals in Austria. It is active in numerous international collaborations and was honoured in 2014 with the Bank Austria Art Prize, the highest endowed award for art and cultural organizations in Austria.
BRUM BRUM
Music video, fiction, Austria, 2020. / 3’
Directed byLorenz Uhl
Produced by Alex Mandl, Manuel Nguyen
Cast: Raffaela Uhl, Ariel Oehl, Haidy Darwish, Georg Nöhrer, Tim Oppermann, Jana Szasz, Sabin Meco, Roberto Caro
Production company: HØVNFILMS
An exercise in suspense: this dynamic music video was made to accompany the track by “YUKNO × Oehl feat. Autodrom” was the winner of “The Austrian Music Video Award “at Vienna Shorts 2021.
Regional premiere
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There must be some kind of way out of here
Experimental, Germany, Austria, 2020. / 13’
Directed and produced by Rainer Kohlberger
Patterns of colorful glowing little balls are superimposed on images from catastrophe films, while a sine wave with trillions of capture-effects drills into the brain. (Diagonale)
Serbian premiere
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Spring Will Not Be Televised
Documentary, Austria, 2020. / 6’
Directed and produced by Michael Heindl
It’s rather uncanny to watch the television screens in the private living spaces Michael Heindl filmed in Vienna during the pandemic in spring of 2020. They are always on and we are not sure anybody is watching. (Patrick Holzapfel)
Regional premiere
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Cause of Death
Documentary, experimental, Austria, South Africa, 2020. / 19’
Directed by Jyoti Mistry
Produced by Florian Schattauer
Cast: Napo Masheane (glas / voiceover)
Production company: Süd Nord Film
An urgent quintet inspired by the horrors of femicide: five miniature vignettes (crush, beat, drown, hang, burn) pulse to the rhythm of evocative spoken-word poetry.
Serbian premiere
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Feiertage
Documentary, experimental, Austria, 2021. / 11’
Directed and produced by Katharina Pichler
A haunting record of the eerily deserted streets in the director’s home city of Graz during spring 2020: strikingly-composed visual and aural postcards from the pandemic.
Regional premiere
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O
Experimental, dance, Austria, France, 2021. / 6’
Directed and produced by, cast: Paul Wenninger
Production company:Kabinett and Co
Stop Motion – a dancer as filmmaker refrains from superfluous movement in a villa in Brittany, giving way to an individual as well as social state described by the French philosopher Paul Virilio as polar inertia. (sixpackfilm)
Serbian premiere
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Genosse Tito, Ich erbe / Comrade Tito, I inherit
Documentary, Austria, Germany, 2021. / 27’
Directed by Olga Kosanović
Cast: Milivoje Pantović, Nadežda Pantović, Valentin Kosanović, Tanja Kosanović
A mountain slope, an orchard, a house. Idyllic pictures in southern Serbia. Three generations under one roof, each with their own inheritance. The idea of home is complicated, the matter of inheriting might be a burden and Josip Broz Tito becomes a symbol for something that has been lost.
Serbian premiere
Film selection: Mediteran Film Festival
Held in Široki Brijeg (B&H) for the past 23 years, MFF is one of the oldest documentary film festivals in the region. The competition program presents films produced or co-produced by Mediterranean countries. The rich supporting program includes film screenings, film-themed book promotions, panel discussions on the topic of documentaries, etc., but also tourist content (tours of the most exciting places in Herzegovina that can serve as filming locations, gastro and oenological offer…). A film workshop is a part of the festival, and the MFF also participates in the production or co-production of documentaries.
HEURTEBISE
2020. / 20’, Spain
Directed byElisa Torres, Octavio Guerra
The wind blows hard in Heurtebise, Alice’s home in France. This year will be her last summer and the first one for her great-grandson Dario. A life that comes to an end and another that begins. A house, three women, a baby and the sea.
EL INFIERNO / HELL
2019. / 23’., Spain
Directed by Raul de la Fuente
Chennu committed his first crime when he was 15 years old: being a street kid. And he entered hell: Pademba Road, the adult prison in Freetown. In hell, Mr. Sillah is in charge, and there is no hope. Chennu got out after four years. Now he wants to go back.
CAMPOSANTO / GOD’S ACRE
2018. / 24’, Spain
Directed by Pablo Adiego Almudevar
An old man is the last inhabitant of a village lost in the mountains. Day by day, he watches from his house the decay and ruin of what was once full of life. The protagonist’s life then evolves around a conversation with those silent neighbors; a conversation with death: a call and an answer.
TAUROMACHY
2017. / 28’, Spain
Directed by Jaime Alekos
Tauromachy offers us a unique perspective on bullfighting: the experience of the bull as a sentient being. Filmed in Spain over the course of three years, it shows the consequences for the animals that step into the arena, empathising with them through their facial expressions, body language and reactions.
The scars you can’t see
2021. / 90’, Croatia, Documentary
Written, directed and produced by Danilo – Lola Ilić
Co-produced by Studio Lux, Anna Gaspotić
The film focuses on violence – domestic violence, a learned behavior passed down through the generations. It tries to explain all forms of violence that we keep silent about, the reasons for that and what we can do as a society to live in a better world. A society that excludes, discriminates and does not provide security to citizens of all genders is not a society that can prosper. Only in a safe environment can a society genuinely thrive. A life free from violence and discrimination is one of the basic human rights, rights that are learned and built from an early age.
International premiere
Danilo – Lola Ilić
Born in Vranje, the Republic of Serbia (then SFRY), in 1977. Obtained his BA in film and TV editing in 2002 from the Academy of Arts in Belgrade (BFA) in the class of Prof. Andrija Zafranović, received his master’s degree in film directing in 2007 from the Ohio University Film School (MFA). Lives and works in Pula. Auteur of four feature-length documentaries: The Dust of Everyday Life (2011), A Map Full of Dreams (2017), Erik (2020), and The scars you can’t see (2021); two feature films: Distortion (2007, Master’s Film), Memoirs of a Broken Mind (2015) and the medium-length documentary 143° (2017).
Auteur night: Lordan Zafranović, 60 years of filmmaking
Symphony of the Heaven City
Documentary, 2004. / 59’
Written and directed by Lordan Zafranović
Produced by Gavrilo Azinović
Production company: Radio-televizija Srbije
The film is dedicated to the largest and most beautiful city of the People’s Republic of China, Shanghai, East Asia’s cultural and industrial capital. The once small fishing village began its heyday in the first decades of the twentieth century when the world’s greatest powers found their interest in this area of China. Because of all that, Shanghai will have a turbulent history. Wars, death and luxury will intertwine on the city streets during the 20th century. The RTS team had the same impression when, with the help of the Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China and the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Belgrade, visited Shanghai.
Director Lordan Zafranović makes a personal one-hour symphony of image and sound. By original use of archival footage, combining images of the old and the new city, he reveals Shanghai’s face, soul, and heart. The film also presents the fact of life and history, that all civilizations at the peak of their power come to an end, and a new civilization begins on the ashes of the previous one. The masterful and recognizable director’s signature of Lordan Zafranović leaves the question whether this can and must happen this time as well, or whether the present will write a different future.
The film won the best director and sound prize at the Martovski Festival in Belgrade, the UNESCO Prize for the best documentary in 2004, and awards for best director at the World Festival of ecological Karlovy Vary film in 2005. Selected for festivals in Amsterdam, Prague, Brno, Turin, Alexandria, Thessaloniki…
In 1960, at the age of sixteen, he began to engage in amateur film. By 1966, he made about 25 amateur films and won many national and international awards. In 1966 he received the highest honour in amateur film and was named Master of international amateur film.
In the professional film industry, he appeared in 1965 with a short feature film Long live the Youth. By 1989, he has made more than 20 short films. Among his notable short films are Ave Maria and The First Waltz, both from 1971, both winning the the Gold Medal of Belgrade. Documentary Antiquity (1972),won the Silver Medal of Belgrade. Movie Work Town Walls (1975) also won the Golden Medal of Belgrade in 1976, and the middle length documentary Blood and Ashes of Jasenovac (1983) won the Belgrade Festival Grand Prix.
He debuted with feature film as a student with titles such as Sunday (1969), and his next film Chronicle of a Crime (1973), compiled from three middle-length films was awarded in Chicago. For Passion According to Matthew (1975), with the theme about Dalmatian life, he won the Critic’s award in Pula. Occupation in 26 Acts (1978) won the Grand Golden Arena in Pula and in the season 1978/79 was the film with the highest number of cinema admissions in former Yugoslavia and former Czechoslovakia. The film begins with his war trilogy with The Fall of Italy (1981), as the second in the series, winning the Grand Prize and Golden Arena in Pula, Deer and Grand Prix in Valencia. The third film dedicated to war and revolution, Evening Bells (1986), concludes his war trilogy, winning the Best Director award and the Deer in Pula. In a completely different way, he later directed an intimate chamber drama, love-themed Angel’s Bite (1984), set in a lighthouse. Haloa-The Whore’s Feast (1988), a story about a love triangle with revenge and tragedy, won the Golden Arena in Pula for best actress. He occasionally directed for television, like a TV movie Murder in the Night Train (1974), filmed for the Belgrade TV and Guests and Labourers (1977) for TV Zagreb.
The synthesis of his entire filmmaking is the feature-length documentary film Decline of the century – Testament L. Z. (1994). winner of the Czech Award for best documentary in 1994. The Czech period consists of Lachrymose (Vengeance is mine) (1995), and the middle-length documentary Who is M.Š (2000). Two documentary films Eyes of Beijing (2003) and China’s Terracotta Warriors (2003), won awards for best director at the Belgrade Festival of Documentary and short film.
He made 80 films so far.
In 2011 in Zagreb, he finished his six-year project, a documentary TV series TITO – the last witness of the testament in 13 episodes, each running 55 minutes. Reviews graded series as exceptional quality, devoid of the ideological approach, measurable value that ensures credibility.
Film selection: AJB DOC Film Festival
This international documentary film festival has been held in Sarajevo (BiH) since 2018, and is organized by the Al Jazeera Balkan TV broadcaster, in cooperation with the Al Jazeera Media Network and Media Institute. It aims to promote filmmakers and documentaries addressing social phenomena, focusing on universal human values: courage, truth, justice, tolerance and cosmopolitanism. The Festival includes competitive and non-competitive selection of films, as well as the AJB Screens program. Besides screenings, it also includes Q&A sessions, meetings with auteurs, exhibitions and other supporting content, creating an environment for meeting and sharing experiences and a platform for ideas and new projects.
Don’t Cry For Me – Susan Sontag in Sarajevo
Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2019. / 72’
Written and directed by Nihad Kreševljaković
Produced by Sead Kreševljaković
The film is about Susan Sontag’s arrival in Sarajevo under siege, where she staged the cult play Waiting for Godot. People who participated in the project or witnessed her stay and work in Sarajevo try to tell their intimate stories about the war, the art created during the siege, Susan Sontag and her significance, and the meaning of making theater in times of destruction.
Serbian premiere
The Last Cow in the Village
Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2021. / 116’
Directed and produced by Kenan Kulenović
Production company: in co-production with AJB
The film’s hero is Muhamed Zulić from Menjak in Vogošća near Sarajevo. His grandmother milked cows, his mother milked cows, his wife and he milked cows. Once they are gone, there will be no one left to milk the cows. Muhamed is a witness of time and place, he remembers the meadows before turning them into buildings. In the film, we will deliver milk, spend time with Muhamed. Go hunting. Try to chronicle the place during a lifetime. Why? To record it before it disappears.
Serbian premiere
Film selection: Međunarodni festival kratkometražnog festivala Drama / Drama International Short Film Festival
The Festival was established in 1978 by the local cinema club. Since 2012 it has been the Cultural Organisation of the City of Drama funded by the City of Drama and the Greek Ministry of Culture. The purpose of the DISFF is: to promote and disseminate the art of cinema, and especially of the short film, in Greece and abroad. Within the programme The Drama Festival is travelling… the award-winning and distinguished films of the annual Drama National Competition travel around the Globe and Greece introducing themselves to the film-loving public, confirming support and interest in the short film.
We are proud to present a selection of the awarded short films of the DISFF National Competition 2021. at 69th Martovski festival.
A summer place
2021 / 21’, Greece
Directed by Alexandra Mattheou
Summer is a permanent state of mind in Limassol, a once small seaside town in Cyprus that has transformed into the oligarch paradise of the Mediterranean. Being both a player and a victim of this city’s transformation as a food stylist, Tina is depressed. On her birthday, she is ready to give up on everything until an extraordinary encounter changes her life.
Ο φοιτητής / The Student
2021. / 8’, Greece
Directed by Vassilis Kalamakis
In November 1973, there was a 3 days demonstration against the Greek Dictatorship at the Polytechnic University of Athens. It all ended with the military being involved by breaking down the gate of the University. We follow the final minutes of the crew in the armored tank that broke into the University, ending the uprising against the regime.
Το Βανκούβερ / To Vancouver
2021 / 23’, Greece
Directed by Artemis Anastasiadou
Two brothers, a spell, wounded landscapes and an inevitable escape. Is it a migration story or a chronicle of an extinction?
Δεν θέλω να ξεχάσω τίποτα / I don’t want to forget anything
2020 / 5’, Greece
Directed by Vaggelio Soumeli
Marialena talks to her sister on the phone as they prepare to go to their mother’s funeral.
Motorway 65
2020 / 15′, Greece
Directed by Evi Kalogiropoulou
Motorway 65 is set at the edge of the city, within the urban industrial environment of Aspropirgos, home to numerous immigrants, and many Pontic Greek migrants from Russia among them. Motorway 65 is like a succession of small explosions of life on the side of the great highway that leads to Athens.
Από το μπαλκόνι / From the balcony
2020 / 12’, Greece
Directed by Aris Kaplanidis
A middle aged lady observes the world of an Athenian neighborhood from her balcony with mixed reactions from those she constantly watches. Until she is no longer there and that world changes forever.
