Discoveries from Croatia World Cinema

An ex-soldier storms a supermarket and takes all the cashiers captive because one of them insulted his grandmother.

On the eve of the war, a former army officer Pavle is torn between the reality that forces him to decide and choose a side, and his own life dilemmas. He becomes increasingly preoccupied with morbid thoughts which leads his life to a tragic epilogue.

At a small border-post on the Yugoslav-Albanian border, yet another generation of soldiers suffering the usual amount of boredom awaits the end of their service, counting days to the moment when they should take their uniforms off for good. It is the spring of 1987 and the thought never even crosses their mind that they would, in fact, put them back on quite soon and go to war.

While witnessing a horrific paranormal occurrence inside an abandoned church, a military commando led by a ruthless colonel, discovers a digital tablet with video footage on it: co-workers filming their trip in the woods, connecting the hikers in the footage with the unbound evil inside the church.

A pregnant French woman lives in Sarajevo with her Bosnian husband and their daughter. They vacation at a Croatian island, where things get complicated when they all become attracted to a beautiful woman.

Dora is a neglected girl, who dreams about becoming a football manager. Suddenly, her outlaw father enters her life and they build a close relationship. Ives, a soap opera director, nurses her father who suffers from Alzheimer’s. As she loses him, she gradually loses the ground beneath her feet. Nataša, successful producer, is pregnant. When things go awry for her, she decides to confront her estranged father. Three daughters battle for acceptance, redemption and new opportunities.

Goran's everyday life alternates between taking care of his mother and watching over his two maturing sons. Whilst having a few chaotic moments, its rather cyclical and calm in its own right. However, when his stubborn and eccentric older brother Marijan is forced by circumstances to move in with the already disfunctional family, the chaos they all found themselves in already becomes all the more apparent.

11-year-old Rea has recently moved to a distant planet in an outer-space colony where she discovers a mysterious animal cub while her father works in a factory that builds robotic creatures. With the help of her new friend Andy, she must protect the real cub from the factory’s ruthless owner, who intends to turn it into a robotic prototype.

Four close friends, Lovro (21), Nenad (20), Stevan (22), and Ivan (20), fought against the Ustashas and Nazis by joining the partisans in WWII. Sixteen years later, they became renowned filmmakers. In 1957, in Communist Yugoslavia, their sexual orientation raises suspicion, and a communist party loyalist named Emir (52) is assigned to sabotage their careers and lives. The pursuit of freedom becomes a fight for survival for the artists, while Emir's beliefs are challenged.

At the beginning of 1991, Yugoslav army did not acknowledge Croatian's independence, and still holding few military barracks in Croatia. Gajski travels to an island to get his son out of the army. Locals have besieged the barracks and organized a festival to try with singing and recitals to get major Aleksa and his soldiers to surrender, but Aleksa has explosives thru the barracks and wants to blow up the island.

After a failed engagement, heartbroken art critic Kseniia finds herself embroiled in intrigue related to a Gauguin – but it might lead her to true love.

Martina starts a relationship with Filip, a young man who spends most of his time playing video games. After Martina convinces Filip to steal her father's money to go to the Party Beach, everything turns into a bloody nightmare.

Albania, 1996. Mira lives in Elbasan with her two sons while her husband works illegally in Greece. Struggling to make ends meet, she invests in a pyramid scheme, hoping for a better future. When close friends migrate, mira grows desperate and sells their apartment to reinvest, moving in with her parents. But the scheme collapses, the country falls into chaos, and mira loses everything. Her teenage son toni becomes violent, eventually arming himself during a riot. Fearing for their safety, Mira decides to flee Albania with her sons. After a dangerous journey, they arrive in Thessaloniki—lost, without Arben, but finally together. At the luna park, they find a fleeting moment of peace.

Stipan is a policeman who comes to small Adriatic island off the Croatian coast in order to investigate reported strange phenomena that had frightened the whole population. At first, nobody wants to co-operate with him, but he finally finds that the island is being allegedly haunted by the ghost of Josip Broz Tito, Communist leader of former Yugoslavia. For Luka, the mayor, this is the opportunity to turn entire island into Tito-themed amusement park. Tito's WW2 veterans, on the other hand, don't believe in ghosts; for them, the apparition is actually Tito himself, who had returned in order to lead them into a new revolution which would restore Communism. Written by Anonymous

Denni is a 10-year-old boy with a mission: to save his mother from his father's violence. For this he devises a foolproof plan: he will have his father killed by a super-killer. Too bad the super-killer he comes across is Secco, who only looks like a criminal and, above all, desperately needs money.

It is the mid 17th century. The Jesuits spread their influence in Central Europe. Maria, a young Countess lives in the castle. Father Had is a honest and ardent servant of the Society of Jesus. He is dedicated to his life's mission, and as such he is an ideal tool in the hands of his superiors, who have their own plans. Had becomes Maria's confessor. Her woman's charm, intelligence and energy, as well as her beauty, are a constant temptation to him. Jesuits are making pressure on Had to finally realize their plans. Will the Jesuits, at last, achieve their goals and take the castle?

While the battle rages around an emptied city, one citizen battles loneliness through a variety of daily rituals.

When they were both children, David and his younger brother Luka both ended up in a terrible accident that caused the latter to go blind and left both parties with incurable feelings of resentment and grief that they decide to try and cure with a hiking trip. However, during the trip, Luka accidentaly injures himself and both brothers will home to overcome their grievances in order to come out of the peril alive.

In the Autumn of 1991 Croatia is fighting for independence and the capital Zagreb is plagued by air raid alerts and blackouts. Hela Martinic is a reporter, who returns to her home town from Australia, called by her old friend Vera Kralj. Soon after arrival, she is told her friend was killed in a traffic accident. At the funeral she meets some people who Vera was involved in some sinister activities and she begins her own investigation.

Two main characters, Cricket and Antoinette, represent two separate worlds, the world of noise, chaos and creativity on the one side, and the world of work, order and discipline on the other. As they fall in love, in spite of obvious differences, they manage to create harmony.

In a fictional Central European country democracy and freedom are only illusion, because behind polished surface there's many cases of murders and manipulations with the people. Police and city authorities are helpless when it comes to revealing the evil and culprits behind it. In the center of this story is the writer Ivan Gajski, whose friend died under sketchy circumstances. Gajski reveals that those who most advocate democracy are not only the same involved in these crimes, but they also did some of the murders as a part of TV production. Gajski meets all kinds of characters through this quest of his, including the woman of his wife Sara, and professor Bošković who discovers the origins of present Evil - the dark past of European continent.

After long years of bullying, one boy buys voodoo doll so he could have his revenge.

Don Fabijan is a young priest who comes to serve on an unnamed small island in the Adriatic. In order to help increase birth rate on the island, he decides to pierce condoms before they are sold. He therefore teams up with the newsagent Petar and the pharmacist Marin. After they abolish all forms of birth control on the entire island, the consequences become more and more complicated.

Koko and friends spend summer vacation on the shores of a lake near the idyllic Green Hill. The magical countryside is disturbed by unusual events which alarm the children as well as the locals: under cover of night, burglars break into one house after another. When the police turns a blind eye to denunciations by adults, the children decide to take matters into their own hands and unmask the burglars.

Based on events from the Balkan Wars. 1991: Amidst the cruel battle of Vukovar, a brave squad of Croatian soldiers fights its way through the besieged country to deliver a truck full of weapons to the Serbian border.

Alvin signed a book deal for a book depicting love in modern age based on his own experiences. But he did not count on the fact that return to those experiences hurts.

In order to recover the body of her son lost during the war in Bosnia, a grieving, but strong-willed Muslim woman, Halima, must track down her estranged niece, who we find carries a mysterious connection to him.

A story about a hunter's son, who was born with antlers, and about how each man kills the thing he loves.

In this black comedy drama, we meet a seemingly perfect family consisting of Olivia, Alexander and their daughter Agata. With the arrival of 25-year-old Julian in their home, their lives are turned upside down and their dysfunctional relationships are revealed. Redemption through humour explores the theme of emotionally drained elites and places it in the context of contemporary social issues.

Through dramatic reconstruction and documentary asides, the spirit of Italian poet, playwright, journalist, aristocrat and army officer Gabriele D’Annunzio is captured, presenting the nascent fascism in his attempts to forge a new state in the aftermath of the First World War.

In former Yugoslavia, following Tito's break-up with Stalin, the rocky island of Goli Otok was the camp site for political prisoners. From that officially non-existant yet dreaded place a young man escapes and seeks refuge on a nearby island. The nuns from the local convent find him unconscious and decide to give him shelter. A relentless secret policeman comes to the island and starts making life miserable for its inhabitants, hoping to find his prey...

A reporter arrives in Rijeka and is placed in a hotel room numbered 23 where he also meets a mysterious roommate with a shady past. His arrival in the city coincides with the dissappearence of a famous local musical artist. His interest sufficiently piqued, he starts an amateur investigation of his own, which traps him in the inescapable clutches of the city's criminal underworld, putting the life and safety of both him and his family at risk.

ZG80 is a prequel of Metastaze. The movie brings back its characters to prewar Yugoslavia where they, as part of Bad Blue Boys, go on a football match in Belgrade to see Dinamo play against Crvena Zvezda. They encounter guest fans, their arch rivals Delije, in a series of events that lead to football fans war on the streets of Belgrade.

Story about one boy who confronts himself from the future.

In 1943, group of Croatian soldiers overtake a strategically important point in western Bosnia with a goal to destroy a group of communist partisans. On the way they met some supernatural phenomena, and the action itself went very badly because the partisans ambushed them. The main character Martin inherits silver cigarette case from a dying soldier. This act connects to the story in 1993 when we meet Martins grandson Tomo. He is one of six soldiers of the Croatian army who have come to the same place in Bosnia to meet the same phenomena and similar fate.

A young Georgian man named Lado is involved in smuggling antique furniture from Georgia to Russia. Medea, Lado’s girlfriend, buys herself an apartment in St. Peterburg’s historic center. At the time of the unlawful deportation of thousands of Georgians from Russia, Lado is caught and deported.

The power went out twice that night. Other things happened as well.

Goran just wants to drive his taxi and take care of his blind wife Lina. But people close to him have their own agendas and dreams which threaten his carefree existence. In the idyllic surroundings of snow-covered Gorski Kotar, the fiery personalities of the highlanders surface and collide.

Franjo has disappeared in an avalanche. He’s left behind two wives and two daughters. An avalanche of unexpected events occurs when he comes back from the dead to announce to his family that he’s gay.

After a failed engagement, heartbroken art critic Kseniia finds herself embroiled in intrigue related to a Gauguin – but it might lead her to true love.

Martina starts a relationship with Filip, a young man who spends most of his time playing video games. After Martina convinces Filip to steal her father's money to go to the Party Beach, everything turns into a bloody nightmare.

Ivan is a 36-year old ex-rock singer and a disillusioned war veteran who lost both legs in the recent Croatian Homeland War. His father, Izidor, was a well-known political prisoner in the former Yugoslavia, and is now standing as an independent candidate for the Croatian Parliament. Then a face from the past re-appears: an impoverished Serbian refugee called Simo, who has recently returned to the town. As an ex-communist official, Simo imprisoned Izidor decades ago. He knows certain facts about Izidor that could destroy his reputation and wreck his political campaign. Simo demands money, in return for his silence and he also has a secret rendezvous with Ivan's mother, Ana. Soon a long-buried secret surfaces once more - with huge repercussions for Ivan. He starts to provoke hard-line Croatians by singing Serbian nationalistic songs, daring them to kill him.

Stipan is a policeman who comes to small Adriatic island off the Croatian coast in order to investigate reported strange phenomena that had frightened the whole population. At first, nobody wants to co-operate with him, but he finally finds that the island is being allegedly haunted by the ghost of Josip Broz Tito, Communist leader of former Yugoslavia. For Luka, the mayor, this is the opportunity to turn entire island into Tito-themed amusement park. Tito's WW2 veterans, on the other hand, don't believe in ghosts; for them, the apparition is actually Tito himself, who had returned in order to lead them into a new revolution which would restore Communism. Written by Anonymous

It is the mid 17th century. The Jesuits spread their influence in Central Europe. Maria, a young Countess lives in the castle. Father Had is a honest and ardent servant of the Society of Jesus. He is dedicated to his life's mission, and as such he is an ideal tool in the hands of his superiors, who have their own plans. Had becomes Maria's confessor. Her woman's charm, intelligence and energy, as well as her beauty, are a constant temptation to him. Jesuits are making pressure on Had to finally realize their plans. Will the Jesuits, at last, achieve their goals and take the castle?

After long years of bullying, one boy buys voodoo doll so he could have his revenge.

Legendary TV host Branko Uvodić invites all tamburica bands for a competition at a music festival. Attracted by the big prize, the band 'Aveti ravnice" travels to the festival and is wrongfully accused of stealing the main prize. During the night, they are chased by the police and have to fight other tamburica bands on their way to their home village. When they finally arrive, they face their last and biggest challenge.

The year is 37 BC. A young Liburnian Volsus is taken by a Roman unit to help in what at first seems a simple task of collecting taxes, but the encounters with local Illyrian tribes soon lead to unexpected turns of events, as they show more resilience to subjugation than meets the eye. We see their archaic, emotional world of quaint and brutal laws and traditions through the eyes of this youngster, regarded by the Romans as a primitive barbarian, and gradually come to understand that their world is not all that different from our own.

Don Fabijan is a young priest who comes to serve on an unnamed small island in the Adriatic. In order to help increase birth rate on the island, he decides to pierce condoms before they are sold. He therefore teams up with the newsagent Petar and the pharmacist Marin. After they abolish all forms of birth control on the entire island, the consequences become more and more complicated.

A war correspondent ventures into a territory being fought over by various warring factions. To enhance his reputation as a journalist, he fabricates news stories, and these manipulations of truth will be his undoing.

During the war, Ana lost members of her family and was raped by a member of the Serb paramilitary forces. Years later, she accidentally sees her tormentor in the middle of Zagreb. She goes to the police, but the man who fits her description was allegedly killed in the war. While nobody believes Ana, the murderous rapist is determined to eliminate her.

Franjo has disappeared in an avalanche. He’s left behind two wives and two daughters. An avalanche of unexpected events occurs when he comes back from the dead to announce to his family that he’s gay.

Destinies of few people from Dubrovnik, as well as Croatian fighters against Yugoslav People's Army in the battle of Srdj, mountain behind the town's walls.

When a school trip leaves a group of teenagers stranded far from home, the recent suicide of a classmate begins to expose the fractures, loyalties and secrets holding them together.

6 types of fruit are left on a kitchen table by a man who then closes the shutters and leaves. However, a solitary ray of sun breaks through a crack, illuminating only oranges. The rest of the fruit is not so happy about that.

Twelve stories of courage, commitment, passion and love. The Blue Cage explains what happens when sailors and ship workers leave their homes and families for several months or even years, thousands of miles away.

A young Georgian man named Lado is involved in smuggling antique furniture from Georgia to Russia. Medea, Lado’s girlfriend, buys herself an apartment in St. Peterburg’s historic center. At the time of the unlawful deportation of thousands of Georgians from Russia, Lado is caught and deported.

This is a story about Paulina P. in which we follow her adventures in class and at home, as well as all the problems she successfully overcomes during the school year. The movie is based on a famous children's book in which she talks about her friendship, love, and family-related problems through comic situations. The plot of the movie itself is set in the real world, with a touch of "magic".

While parquet floors are drying out in the apartment they've just moved in a couple of days ago, her and him are spending the night on the rooftop of their building. It's the end of summer, and their whole life together is in front of them. Premiered at Zagreb Film Festival in 2009 in Checkers programme (Croatian shorts), where it won the Golden Pram, the best film award.

Peter and Martina are a tourist couple on a vacation on the Croatian coast. Both are successful and in their prime. However, the couple is going through a crisis. Both are frustrated and unsatisfied with their lives. They hope this vacation will help save their relationship. They both hope that this, long expected vacation will improve their relationship. They go on a mountain trip, and they get lost. Far from their usual comfort, confronted with the raw nature, they are left with no other option but to face one another...