29thSFF Human Rights Day

Contents

4 Rada Šešić: Introduction

6 Jury of Competition Programme – Documentary Film

9 Human Rights Day Programme

12 Human Rights Day Programme – Mentors

14 Competition Programme – Documentary Film

HUMAN RIGHTS AWARD

The Sarajevo Film Festival Human Rights Award is supported by the Embassy of the Netherlands. The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views of the Embassy of the Netherlands.

Every Person Is a Film

A documentary film is not elitist in any way; it is often created with very limited resources, sometimes even in a so-called ‘kitchen’ or family production, with a lot of personal dedication from the authoring team, with much effort invested, years of research, and a passion to present the truth about something the authors want to bring closer to us. A documentary film is not elitist, also because it is often shown in the field, where the films were shot, or where a dramatic story from life needs to be presented in order to potentially help a vulnerable person, to hear the truth about injustice, committed crime, criminality, or even something that is very beautiful and positive, which can be an inspiration to many.

In a time with so many global problems, and when we don’t know which complex situation requires more attention, it is particularly significant for documentarists to focus on local issues, on what is right in front of their eyes and what they know best. The characteristic of a regional program is that authors decide to observe the world around them, regardless of the fact that these films might not receive the same global attention as some,

let’s say, big global stories. However, every person is a film, and every injustice is a tremendous drama that deserves to be told.

Our program presents brave and provocative films that dare to ask essential questions and encourage further search for answers. Authors reflect the real life around them, talk about what is happening in their countries, in their surroundings. For example, the film that opens the competitive program WE WILL NOT FADE AWAY comes from Ukraine and tells the story of a group of young people who had planned to go to the Himalayas before the war. Do young people still have the strength and possibilities to plan their future, can they hope to fulfill dreams that are not related to a terrible war and occupation? Another Ukrainian film, ONE ALOE, ONE FICUS, ONE AVOCADO AND SIX DRACAENAS raises a universal question because it relates to hundreds of thousands of migrants in the world: how to decide what to take and what to leave behind when you are forced to leave your home. A theme close to many Sarajevans and others from Bosnia and Herzegovina who left the country during the war, many leaving forever.

The film we are showing on the first day of the Competitive Documentary program is from Turkey and is called A DAY, 365 DAYS and it examines violence, sexual abuse within the family. Can daughters resist fathers, aggressors, and bring them to court in a patriarchal country? These and other questions are posed by our dramatic, exciting, and exceptionally well-directed documentaries that come from many countries, from Georgia and Ukraine, through Hungary and Romania, all the way to Kosovo and North Macedonia, a total of 14 countries. Ten out of the twenty films were directed by women. The film with which we conclude the program is FAIRY GARDEN from Hungary. Two interesting personalities found themselves at a moment when everyone had left them and seemingly condemned them. Being a transvestite and homeless is legally unacceptable in Hungary. Nevertheless, these two kindred souls share a life like that of a father and child, helping each other and trying to live in harmony.

From Bosnia and Herzegovina, we have two extremely relevant films: SILENCE OF REASON, which through a very creative film texture, exam-

ines war crimes against women in Foča, while the other film was shot in America, in a hotel where the Dayton Agreement was signed.

Through the twenty selected films, we talk about the experience of home, the economic system, poor working and management conditions, we question the concept of democracy and the role of the individual in society, we search for an answer to the question of whether a victim can ever mentally overcome a crime. Documentaries on which many authors worked for up to ten years, undertook thorough research, impressively bonded with the main characters, bravely explore the dramas of individuals and their ways of fighting for the realization of personal rights, such as the right to live according to the rules of our faith, the right to explore our own sexuality, the right to achieve justice. Documentary films can truly open our eyes and initiate conversations about issues that are important to all of us.

Rada Sesic Programmer Competition Programme –Documentary Film

Jury of Competition Programme –Documentary Film

Films in the Competition Programme - Documentary Film of the 29th Sarajevo Film Festival are competing for awards:

HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM

Award in the amount of €4,000, sponsored by the Government of Switzerland

HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY FILM

Award in the amount of €2,000

HUMAN RIGHTS AWARD

Award in the amount of €3,000, sponsored by the Kingdom of the Netherlands

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE

Award in the amount of €2,500

Iva Dimitrova is a programme manager at Chicken & Egg Pictures, a US-based funding organisation that provides a global community of female and non-binary documentary filmmakers with creative and financial support. Dimitrova oversees the application, selection, and evaluation activities for all programmes and grants. She focuses on the iterative improvement of internal processes to ensure transparent, equitable, and affirming experiences for filmmakers across key touchpoints with the organisation. Since joining Chicken & Egg Pictures in 2019, Dimitrova has supported programme logistics as Programme Assistant and Programme Coordinator, prior to which she worked as the Oral History Coordinator at the University of Georgia Special Collections Libraries.

Niklas Engstrøm is Artistic Director at CPH:DOX. In 2003, Tine Fischer asked Engstrøm if he wanted to start a documentary film festival with her; today, CPH:DOX ranks among the most important documentary festivals on the world. Engstrøm worked as Associate Programmer at the festival from its first edition in 2003, and as Senior Programmer since 2008. He was appointed Head of the Programme Department in 2015.

IVA DIMITROVA Program Manager, Chicken and Egg Pictures, USA

NIKLAS ENGSTROM Artistic Director, CPH Dox, Denmark

PÉTER KEREKES

Director, Producer, Slovakia

Péter Kerekes is a film director, producer, and teacher. He directed and produced 107 MOTHERS, VELVET TERRORISTS, COOKING HISTORY, and 66 SEASONS. He produced the omnibus documentary OCCUPATION 1968, which maps the occupation of Czechoslovakia from the perspective of five directors from five countries. As a co-producer, Kerekes has worked on projects including Ihor Ivanko’s FRAGILE MEMORY, Vít Klusák and Barbora Chalupová’s CAUGHT IN THE NET, and Michał Bielawski’s documentary thriller THE WIND. Kerekes teaches at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava and at the DocNomads joint master’s programme in Budapest.

Human Rights Day Programme

Supported by the Embassy of the Netherlands

SATURDAY, 12TH OF AUGUST

15:30

Cineplexx 1 / Screening

WE WILL NOT FADE AWAY

Director: Alisa Kovalenko

Countries: Ukraine, France, Poland

19:00

Cineplexx 1 / Screening

ONE ALOE, ONE FICUS, ONE AVOCADO AND SIX DRACAENAS

Director: Marta Smerechynska

Country: Ukraine, France

A DAY, 365 DAYS

Director: Eylem Kaftan

Country: Turkey, Croatia

SUNDAY, 13TH OF AUGUST

15:30

Cineplexx 1 / Screening

NON-ALIGNED: SCENES FROM THE LABUDOVIĆ REELS

Director: Mila Turajlić

Country: Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, France, Qatar

19:00

Cineplexx 1 / Screening

HUG

Director: Miroslav Mandić

Country: Slovenia, Croatia, North Macedonia

WHAT’S TO BE DONE

Director: Goran Dević

Country: Croatia

21:30

Cineplexx 1 / Screening

FRAN AND VERKA; OR A USUAL DAY IN AN ABANDONED VILLAGE

Director: Sovran Nrecaj

Country: Kosovo

MY MUSLIM HUSBAND

Director: Daniel Ioan Bărnuți, Alexandra

Lizeta Bărnuți

Country: Romania

10:00

Cineplexx 8 / Screening

WE WILL NOT FADE AWAY

Director: Alisa Kovalenko

Countries: Ukraine, France, Poland

12:30

Cineplexx 8 / Screening

ONE ALOE, ONE FICUS, ONE AVOCADO AND SIX DRACAENAS

Director: Marta Smerechynska

Country: Ukraine, France

A DAY, 365 DAYS

Director: Eylem Kaftan

Country: Turkey, Croatia

MONDAY, 14TH OF AUGUST

15:30

Cineplexx 1 / Screening

DE FACTO

Director: Selma Doborac

Country: Austria, Germany

19:00

Cineplexx 1 / Screening

BODY

Director: Petra Seliškar

Country: Slovenia, Croatia, North Macedonia

12:00

Cineplexx 7 / Screening

Human Rights Day Film

SNAJKA: DIARY OF EXPECTATIONS

Director: Tea Vidović Dalipi

Country: Croatia, Kosovo, Italy

10:00

Cineplexx 8 / Screening

NON-ALIGNED: SCENES FROM THE LABUDOVIĆ REELS

Director: Mila Turajlić

Country: Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, France, Qatar

12:30

Cineplexx 8 / Screening

HUG

Director: Miroslav Mandić

Country: Slovenia, Croatia, North Macedonia

WHAT’S TO BE DONE?

Director: Goran Dević

Country: Croatia

15:00

Cineplexx 8 / Screening

FRAN AND VERKA; OR A USUAL DAY IN AN ABANDONED VILLAGE

Director: Sovran Nrecaj

Country: Kosovo

MY MUSLIM HUSBAND

Director: Daniel Ioan Bărnuți, Alexandra

Lizeta Bărnuți

Country: Romania

TUESDAY 15TH OF AUGUST

15:30

Cineplexx 1 / Screening

HORROR VACUI

Director: Boris Poljak

Country: Croatia

SILENCE OF REASON

Director: Kumjana Novakova

Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia

19:00

Cineplexx 1 / Screening

BOTTLEMEN

Director: Nemanja Vojinović

Country: Serbia, Slovenia

10:00

Cineplexx 8 / Screening

DE FACTO

Director: Selma Doborac

Country: Austria, Germany

12:30

Cineplexx 8 / Screening

BODY

Director: Petra Seliškar

Country: Slovenia, Croatia, North Macedonia

WEDNESDAY, 16TH OF AUGUST

15:30

Cineplexx 1 / Screening

HOPE HOTEL PHANTOM

Director: Bojan Stojčić

Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina

BETWEEN REVOLUTIONS

Director: Vlad Petri

Country: Romania

19:00

Cineplexx 1 / Screening

VALERIJA

Director: Sara Jurinčić

Country: Croatia

REQUIEM TO THE HOT DAYS OF SUMMER

Director: Giorgi Parkosadze

Country: Georgia, Greece

10:00

Cineplexx 8 / Screening

HORROR VACUI

Director: Boris Poljak

Country: Croatia

SILENCE OF REASON

Director: Kumjana Novakova

Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia

THURSDAY, 17TH OF AUGUST

15:30

Cineplexx 1 / Screening

DESERTERS

Director: Damir Markovina

Country: Croatia

SELF-PORTRAIT ALONG THE BORDERLINE

Director: Anna Dziapshipa

Country: Georgia

19:00

Cineplexx 1 / Screening

FAIRY GARDEN

Director: Gergő Somogyvári

Country: Hungary, Romania, Croatia

10:00

Cineplexx 8 / Screening

HOPE HOTEL PHANTOM

Director: Bojan Stojčić

Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina

BETWEEN REVOLUTIONS

Director: Vlad Petri

Country: Romania

12:30

Cineplexx 8 / Screening

VALERIJA

Director: Sara Jurinčić

Country: Croatia

REQUIEM TO THE HOT DAYS OF SUMMER

Director: Giorgi Parkosadze

Country: Georgia, Greece

FRIDAY, 18TH OF AUGUST

10:00

Cineplexx 8 / Screening

DESERTERS

Director: Damir Markovina

Country: Croatia

SELF-PORTRAIT ALONG THE BORDERLINE

Director: Anna Dziapshipa

Country: Georgia

12:30

Cineplexx 8 / Screening

FAIRY GARDEN

Director: Gergő Somogyvári

Country: Hungary, Romania, Croatia

*Please secure your ticket at the Box Office

Human Rights Day Programme – MENTORS:

AMBASSADOR JOHANN SATTLER, EU’s Head of Delegation to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Special Representative, assumed office in Sep 2019. He holds a Political Science and Slavic Languages Master’s from Innsbruck University, an Advanced International Studies Postgraduate Diploma from Vienna’s Diplomatic Academy, and a Political Science PhD from the University of Vienna. With extensive focus on the Western Balkans, Sattler’s career includes roles like Austrian ambassador to Albania, and postings in Sarajevo and Tirana. Born in 1969, he is fluent in German, English, and Russian, proficient in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian and Albanian.

UNA GUNJAK was born and raised in Sarajevo. She completed her film studies in Turin and then pursued a master’s degree in film editing at NFTS. She has edited numerous short, feature, documentary, and TV projects. Since 2013, she has been dedicated to screenwriting and directing. Her short film “KOKOŠKA” premiered at Cannes in the Critics’ Week section and won the European Film Academy Award for Best Short Film in 2014. The film has been screened at over 270 film festivals and won 70 awards. Her short film “POZDRAVI IZ NJEMAČKE” had its premiere again at Cannes, this time in the Directors’ Fortnight section. Her feature film script “ALFA” was selected for the Cinefondation residency program and received support for development from the Media program and the Film Foundation.

VLADIMIR PERIŠIĆ studied literature at University Paris VII and graduated from film directing at La Fémis. His graduation film DREMANO OKO, screened as part of the Cinéfondation selection at Cannes in 2003. His first feature, ORDINARY PEOPLE premiered at Cannes as part of Critics’ Week. OUR SHADOW WILL, was his contribution to the collective film BRIDGES OF SARAJEVO, part of the official selection at Cannes 2014. He has been co-director of the Belgrade Auteur Film Festival since 2011. In 2018 and 2019 he was filmmaker-programmer at ACID. LOST COUNTRY, Perisic’s second feature, had its official premiere on Semaine de la criticque at the Cannes Film Festival.

TEA VIDOVIĆ DALIPI was born in Zagreb in 1986. She studied at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb and in Erfurt, Germany. She has completed Peace Studies in Zagreb and has an active and long collaboration with the Centre for Peace Studies, developing programs related to asylum seeking and migrations. An active member of civil society in Croatia, collaborating with numerous individuals, organizations and initiatives focusing on the protection of human rights and community activity. In 2013 she enrolled in Restart’s School of Documentary Film. Her large desire to master the technique which would make it possible for her to share her views on migrations and the world turned into the production of the film SNAJKA: DIARY OF EXPECTATIONS, which was filmed over a period of ten years.

MILA TURAJLIĆ is an award-winning director born in Belgrade. Her films have screened at numerous festivals and been released theatrically in Europe and North America. Her THE OTHER SIDE OF EVERYTHING won 32 awards, including the IDFA Award for Best Documentary Film. Turaljić’s debut feature-length documentary, CINEMA KOMUNISTO, played at more than 100 festivals and won 16 awards, including the FOCAL Award for Creative Use of Archival Footage. Her research-based artistic practice ranges from video installations commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art in New York to live documentary performances. In 2020 Mila was invited to join the Documentary Branch of the Association of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Her most recent project, the documentary diptych CINÉ-GUERRILLAS and NON-ALIGNED: SCENES FROM THE LABUDOVIC REELS, an archival road trip through the cinematic birth of the Third Word, had its premiere in the autumn of 2022.

NERMINA KULOGLIJA started working as a journalist since 2017. She began her career with Center for Investigative Reporting in Sarajevo, first as an intern, then a journalist, where she mainly focused on researching corruption and organized crime. She holds a master’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from the Faculty of Political Sciences at the University of Sarajevo. For the last two years as the member of Balkan Investigative Reporting Network Bosnia and Herzegovina, she has been working on research into extremism, terrorism, genocide denial and corruption. During 2020 and 2021, she published three researches about far-right groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Following the symbols used by far-right groups she found the activities of at least three ultra right-wing groups operating in BiH. Groups whose activities she found were banned in Germany and declared as terrorist in Canada.

ELMA TATARAGIĆ is an accomplished Bosnian screenwriter, screenplay professor, and Sarajevo Film Festival selector. Graduating in Dramaturgy from the Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo, she earned her master’s degree from the Faculty of Philosophy and completed her doctoral dissertation on literary adaptation for feature film. Tataragić has been an integral part of the Sarajevo Film Festival since its inception, serving as a main competition program selector and CineLink Industry Days committee member.

FIROUZEH KHOSROVANI, Born in Tehran, settled in Italy to pursue her artistic studies at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera. After graduating in 2002 she returned to Iran and acquired her Master’s degree in Journalism. She now lives between Tehran and Rome. Her debut film, Life Train (2004), is a documentary on the ‘play’ therapy provided for the traumatized children of the eartquake in Bam. In 2007, she directed Rough Cut, a film about mutilated plastic mannequins in the shop windows of Tehran, which won thirteen international film festival awards. Her last work, Fest of Duty, follows two adolescent girls as they transition into adulthood, eight years after their official Fest of Duty. The film won the OXFAM award at IDFA in 2014.

H.H. LEONARDS, an author and mother of three, defied odds by acquiring properties like the O Museum in the Mansion using unconventional means. She’s a savvy executive with digital marketing expertise and has orchestrated philanthropic endeavors for corporations. Her endeavors span multiple organizations and industries, from a global computer foundation to cause-related marketing.

HUMAN RIGHTS DAY FILM

Snajka: Diary of Expectations

Croatia, Italy, Kosovo, 2023, Colour, 75 min, Croatian, Albanian, English, Romany

Director: Tea Vidović Dalipi

Screenplay: Tea Vidović Dalipi

We enter every relationship burdened by identities bequeathed by our primary families, be they economic, social, or religious. Love, marriage, and parenthood between Tea, a Croatian woman, and Mirsad, a Roma man, seems in a sense to be mission impossible, because their daily life will be scrutinised by their respective families’ wholly different customs and value systems. Burdened by rigorous tradition on the one hand and economic pressure on the other, the couple will expose themselves to the possibility of their loved ones’ failed expectations, at risk of jeopardising their own relationship and a better future for themselves and their newborn daughter Frida.

B&H PREMIERE Between Revolutions

Romania, Croatia, Qatar, Iran, 2023, Colour and B&W, 70 min, Romanian, Farsi

Director: Vlad Petri

Screenplay: Lavinia Braniște, Vlad Petri

In 1970s Bucharest, Zahra and Maria form a deep friendship while studying at university. As political turmoil brews in Iran, Zahra is forced to return home, leaving Maria behind. Over the next decade, they maintain their connection through a series of letters, chronicling their struggles as women fighting for a voice and their respective countries moving in divergent directions. Despite the distance and obstacles, their longing for each other remains strong.

WORLD PREMIERE

Bottlemen

Serbia, Slovenia, 2023, Colour, 84 min, Serbian, Romany

Director: Nemanja Vojinović

Screenplay: Nemanja Vojinović

On the outskirts of Belgrade, one of the largest landfills in Europe sprawls across the remains of the ancient Vinča civilization. Plastic bottle collectors, a.k.a. “Bottlemen”, eke out a difficult living in this toxic landscape. Now, their vibrant community is facing new and greater threats. Faced with the imminent privatisation of the landfill, an entire community of bottlemen is brought to a dead end, trapped in the gap between technological modernisation and an inadequate social care system. While the environmental impact of the landfill’s modernisation is unknown, the fragile community of collectors will have to face their uncertain destiny on their own.

REGIONAL PREMIERE De Facto

Austria, Germany, 2023, Colour, 130 min, German

Director: Selma Doborac

Screenplay: Selma Doborac

How can cinema engage with complicity in crimes against humanity, extreme violence, and state terror without conniving in it? DE FACTO finds answers to these questions in a meticulously directed play of two actors, a precisely compiled film script and a deliberately reduced setting.

REGIONAL PREMIERE Deserters

Croatia, 2022, Colour, 45 min, Bosnian, Croatian

Director: Damir Markovina

Screenplay: Damir Markovina

DESERTERS is a hybrid documentary essay about director Damir Markovina’s generation – Bosnian and Herzegovinian high schoolers from the town of Mostar, struck by a devastating war on the verge of their maturity. This tapestry of their memories of the early nineties is composed of modern-day postcards and silent shots of places where wars used to be waged and which the protagonists of this film were forced to abandon. The serenity of these places today contrasts with emotional excerpts from letters addressed to Markovina from refugee camps scattered all over Europe. The refugees describe their flight across the border, their experiences in refugee camps and their lasting hate of the enemies who took away their home and their youth. A film about a lost generation, exile, and difficult choices, and an answer to the toughest question of any war: to stay or to run?

REGIONAL PREMIERE Horror Vacui

Croatia, 2023, Colour, 24 min, No Dialogue

Director: Boris Poljak

Screenplay: Boris Poljak

The term “horror vacui” was coined by Aristotle, and it means “fear of empty space”. It is used as a metaphor of the fear of the uncertain future that causes feelings of anxiety and loneliness. With its one-take sequences and free-associative editing style, this meditative film sends out a warning of the growing hyper-militarisation of the world we live in, and the impact this has on the human psyche. Due to the space and time of the events taking place in film being blurred, everything can happen everywhere at any time in a globalised world.

REGIONAL PREMIERE

Self-Portrait along the Borderline

Georgia, 2023, Colour and B&W, 50 min, Georgian, Russian

Director: Anna Dziapshipa

An abandoned house opens the door to revisiting the past by bringing to life a unique, nearly destroyed image archive from Abkhazia, the unrecognised territory on the border of the Black Sea, a place that is normally inaccessible to Georgians because of the ethnic conflict that happened between Georgia and Abkhazia in 1993. Combining voice, archival, and recent footage, SELF-PORTRAIT ALONG THE BORDERLINE examines a lost and split identity that is stuck between the margins. The audio-visual fragments of this archive are intricately woven together to create a personal and political biography which recalls the complicated and controversial historical past of Georgian-Abkhaz relations.

B&H PREMIERE

We Will Not Fade Away

Ukraine, France, Poland, United States, 2023, Colour, 100 min, Russian, Ukrainian

Director: Alisa Kovalenko

A group of teenagers from Donbas are entering adulthood, and dream of conquering the world. Although they can hear gunshots and explosions in the distance, they do not lose hope. They rebel, ride on the waves of adventure, walk into minefields, and sunbathe by a local lake. They dream of escaping not only from the war but also—like teenagers all over the world—from the boredom of living in a small town. Then, unexpectedly, an opportunity arises for them to embark on a long journey all the way to Nepal. Will their dream of conquering the world come true?

WORLD PREMIERE

What’s to Be Done?

Croatia, 2023, Colour, 79 min, Croatian

Director: Goran Dević

Screenplay: Goran Dević

Željko is the labour union leader at Gredelj Train Factory. His deputy, Mladen, has committed suicide after massive public protests and inter-union clashes. Zeljko is torn between the guilt he feels over Mladen’s death and workers’ expectations that he will lead a strike that should thwart a plan by the government, acting on the EU’s behest, to declare the factory bankrupt. WHAT’S TO BE DONE? is structured in three acts. The first act uses observational documentary footage; the second, footage filmed a decade later; while the third is fiction.

WORLD PREMIERE

Body

Slovenia, Croatia, North Macedonia, 2023, Colour, 92 min, Slovenian, Macedonian

Director: Petra Seliškar

Screenplay: Petra Seliškar

BODY is a unique and poetic journey into the most unknown areas of the self, through the testimony of Urška, who spent twenty years struggling between life and death. A professional piano player and a former fashion model, Urška had everything going for her until she was struck by illness. Recovering from encephalitis, she had to get to know herself again and learn to live: to walk, to recognise her daughter, to understand – and love – her body, which seems to want to destroy her.

REGIONAL PREMIERE

Non-Aligned: Scenes from the Labudović Reels

Serbia, France, Croatia, Montenegro, Qatar, 2022, Colour and B&W, 100 min, Serbian, English, French, Arabic

Director: Mila Turajlić

Screenplay: Mila Turajlić

NON-ALIGNED: SCENES FROM THE LABUDOVIĆ REELS takes us on an archival road trip through the birth of the Third World project, based on unseen 35mm materials filmed by Stevan Labudović, the cameraman of Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito. The film traces the birth of the Non-Aligned movement, examining how a global project of political emancipation was constituted by the cinematic image. Together with CINÉ-GUERRILLAS, the film forms a documentary diptych.

WORLD PREMIERE A Day, 365 Hours

Türkiye, Croatia, 2023, Colour, 81 min, Turkish

Director: Eylem Kaftan

Screenplay: Eylem Kaftan

Two young women are joined together by their shared experience of being abused. Their unexpected meeting forms a strong bond that gives them the strength both to take on their abusers in court and to help other young women seek justice.

B&H PREMIERE

Hope Hotel Phantom

Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2023, Colour, 22 min, English

Director: Bojan Stojčić

Screenplay: Bojan Stojčić

In November 1995, the leaders of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia met in Dayton, Ohio, to broker a peace agreement that would end four violent years of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Dayton Peace Agreement was negotiated at the Hope Hotel. Twenty-seven years later, an artist flew to the United States and booked a room at the hotel.

WORLD PREMIERE

Requiem to the Hot Days of Summer

Georgia, Greece, 2023, Colour, 77 min, Georgian, English

Director: Giorgi Parkosadze

Guri and his mother, Sanata, have spent all of their lives in a remote mountainous valley in Georgia, distant from nearly any signs of urban civilisation. Farming, beekeeping, and cheese-making have been their routine for decades. While witnessing the daily life of mother and son, the audience is immersed in the non-verbal, contemplative relationship between the two, and through the gentle gaze of the camera, enters effortlessly into rural reality as an inseparable element of their being. Through a touching motherhood story, REQUIEM TO THE HOT DAYS OF SUMMER embraces the sadness, silence, and solitude that follow every human being as the primordial seal of their fate and inspires the reminiscence of a blissful way of life, which is still present in the unconscious memory of humanity.

REGIONAL PREMIERE Valerija

Croatia, 2023, Colour, 15 min, Croatian

Director: Sara Jurinčić

Screenplay: Sara Jurinčić

This hybrid film takes us on a journey into a world without men. Reality and subconscious blend together in the filmmaker’s intimate encounter with her female ancestors. Silently, she asks: How does it feel to have a family tree consisting only of women? What do our ancestresses whisper from their silent portraits?

WORLD PREMIERE Hug

Slovenia, Croatia, 2023, Colour, 14 min, No Dialogue

Director: Miroslav Mandić

Screenplay: Miroslav Mandić

Nature caressed us into being, even taught us how to pat her back as we grew up. Then, we started hitting her hard, using her goods for our progress at her expense. She stares at us reluctantly yet tolerates us, as a mother would. But, occasionally, she freaks out, warns us with an earthquake, a pandemic, or a tsunami. Shall we ever learn not to take advantage of our mom, and instead share her goods with humility, respect, and appreciation?

WORLD PREMIERE Silence of Reason

North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2023, Colour, 63 min, Bosnian, English

Director: Kumjana Novakova

Screenplay: Kumjana Novakova

Built solely from forensic visual archive material and testimonies, SILENCE OF REASON itself acts as a memory: elusive, fluid, rejecting framing, moving in all directions, spatial and temporal. The singular violence and torture experienced by women from the Foča rape camps during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina become our own collective memories, surpassing time and space.

WORLD PREMIERE

Fairy Garden

Hungary, Romania, Croatia, 2023, Colour, 83 min, Hungarian

Director: Gergő Somogyvári

Screenplay: Zsolt Pocsai, Gergő Somogyvári

Hidden in the heart of the woods of Budapest, an unorthodox father-daughter relationship blossoms between Fanni, a nineteen-year-old transgender teenager, and Laci, a sixty-year-old homeless man. Together, they form a makeshift family, supporting each other through hardship and change. This unconventional coming-of-age documentary unveils their tale of perseverance and acceptance, and the triumph of finding home amidst the struggles of life.

REGIONAL PREMIERE

One Aloe, One Ficus, One Avocado and Six Dracaenas

Ukraine, France, 2022, Colour, 8 min, Ukrainian

Director: Marta Smerechynska

Screenplay: Marta Smerechynska, Kateryna Babkina

What to take, what to leave? How important are material possessions when you are trying to save your life? Packages from Ukraine – filled with everything and nothing – wait patiently under a bridge to be collected, while a voice stirs memories of frivolous and treasured personal effects, in a heart-breaking farewell letter to Kyiv.

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

My Muslim Husband

Romania, 2023, Colour, 71 min, Romanian, English, Arabic

Director: Daniel Ioan Bărnuți, Alexandra Lizeta

Laura Bărnuți

Alexandra marries Daniel, a young Romanian convert to Islam. She believes that being open to learning about a different culture will enable her new family to find happiness and harmony. But soon, the young couple has to face not only the religious discrimination of society but also other prejudices. Alexandra and Daniel must fight for each other and their relationship, even though it means leaving behind their old selves or cutting off some people from their lives.

Fran and Verka; Or a Usual Day in an Abandoned Village

Kosovo, 2023, Colour, 14 min, No Dialogue

Director: Sovran Nrecaj

Screenplay: Sovran Nrecaj

Fran and Verka are the sole inhabitants of Vërnakollë—the place they first met many years ago, were married, and have been living ever since. After the 1999 war in Kosovo, everyone but Fran and Verka left the village. Their story is a testament to the unbreakable bonds that tie us to what we call home and where we belong.