Discoveries from Croatia World Cinema

Croatia, 1993. Two marksmen—Robert, a Croat, and Stojan, a Serb—wander aimlessly through the desolate countryside. When their paths unexpectedly cross, the enemies immediately try to shoot each other. The first "click," however, is not coming from a gun barrel, but from the ground beneath them: the enemies stepped on a landmine at the same time. One foot in the grave, they are involuntarily bound together by common destiny—the death of one means the death of the other. But not just their apparent differences make it difficult for them to overcome their dilemma. Nature, too, offers some challenges to test the soldiers' solidarity and survival skills.

Anamarija starts her job as a counsellor at a new school. Together with her, the viewers begin to appreciate what kind of people the staffroom teachers are, they witness the petty conflicts and also uncover the power games that go on behind the scenes. This self-assured debut from Sonja Tarokić about the individual's struggle within the system and the sheer effort required to preserve one’s integrity, also presents a complex study of an institution whose employees have taken on one of the most responsible roles an adult can have – to educate future generations.

Witty and resourceful fourteen-year-old Koko solves yet another mystery - aided by his friends. One of them, Tomo, has recently moved to the city and longs for adventure. The boys notice that their new classmate acts curiously. Step by step, joined by their classmate Marijana, they unveil the boy's dark secret.

Still today, years after the war, some regions are contaminated with broken families, poverty, crime and low-grade uranium. In the middle of nowhere in Western Herzegovina, at a NATO military training range, a nine-year-old girl called Alica, together with her uncle Valentin, collects shells and scraps of grenades to sell on the black market. Valentin dies of cancer, Alica's diagnosis is not good but there's no money for therapy. Alica's journey through the Land of Wonders begins.

Stefan reunites with his family to celebrate his grandmother's birthday for the first time after his mother's recent passing. This homecoming, driven by his urge to complete a film about his mother and an attempt to make amends by rescuing a stray dog, will ignite an introspective journey for Stefan. Inspired by the director's real-life experiences and starring his actual family members in a mission to complete a lake house and a film, this is an intimate cinematic exploration of the timeless mother-son relationship.

Ante is a village fella who arrives in Zagreb to study at the faculty of forestry.

A found footage visual journey through a poem by Anaissa Ali.

Three kids spend the summer days the usual way: hanging out, snapchatting... and playing with their newly discovered pet.

Film is about one of all time best basketball player from Europe - Drazen Petrovic, who after successful career in European league played in the NBA. He died in 1993 in a car accident in Germany.

A nobleman poet embarks on boat trip with two local fishermen. As they hop the bucolic islands he recalls his youthful tragic love, his artistic impotence and uneasy relationship with common fishermen.

A group of trainee therapists come together for their regular group psychotherapy session, but when their normal routine is disrupted, events take an unexpected direction: as their professional masks start to slip, long repressed personal tensions soon bubble to the surface.

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.

Newly divorced pathologist Fero returns to the Island of Rab, where he had spent most of his childhood alongside his father. Fero comes for the funeral of his friend's daughter, but soon, the chief of police, his friend Mungos, involves him in the murder investigation of a Romanian prostitute.

A German soldier, after avoiding death in a Partisan raid, wanders through the unforgiving mountainous terrain of an unfamiliar country, helplessly seeking salvation.

An obscure actor is hired by the police to get a confession out of a dying mafioso.

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.

Mirjana is returning to Croatia from Germany where she spent some time as a refugee. She is pregnant. Now, when the war in Croatia is over and her visa expired, Mirjana is coming back to her family in a remote and devastated village. Her family is trying to move on with their lives after the war. They rebuild their house and they are trying to find a new husband for their pregnant daughter. Being patriarchal and devoted to their tradition they believe a woman needs to have a husband and a child has to have a father. Of course, the child and the father have to be of the same nationality. Problems start when Mirjana gives a birth to a boy with Asian features. The family and the neighbors are shocked. Mirjana¡¦s rigid father refuses to accept a grandchild of a different nationality, not to mention the one of a different race! Mirjana and her son are forced to leave. She returns only when her father falls seriously ill and requests to see his grandson before he dies.

Two strangers: a man and a woman meet in an elevator. When the elevator gets stuck, irreconcilable differences between two protagonists resurface. What follows is a surreal interplay of passion and dreams and a confrontation that evolves into a ruthless fight for survival.

A suspicious cop tracks his own wife in this romantic thriller about hypertrophied jealousy.

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.

Modest teacher of pedagogy VESNA (50) becomes an accidental media star when, in an intoxicated state, she agrees to give a speech at a student protest in which her son also participates. The viral videos drew a lot of attention from the public, so she was declared one of the "POWERFUL WOMEN" by the American Embassy and received an invitation to participate in a performance at the Ambassador's residence during the celebration of the Eighth of March, for the social and political elite of her country.

Approximately a month before the death of the first Croatian president and in the wake of parliamentary elections in December 1999, a diplomat from the Croatian embassy in Paris is reported missing. He is a doctor of French literature who returned from Canada in 1991. Gawain Skok, who took part in the War for Independence and defended Vukovar, starts a search.

Since his ex-wife obstinately and by her own will prevents Zvonko from spending time with his underage daughter, and the institutions do nothing, he has less and less time for everyday's life. He obsessively collects evidence, records and writes transcripts of events that lead him away from the outside world.

It is 1995. The summer when the war operation Storm will take place. Boro, who is going to be forty in a year and a half, with his wife Jasna and son Luka goes to his home village Drinovci, Herzegovina, after seven years. He wants to see his brother who managed to leave Sarajevo with his family. Boro knew that his brother was wounded, but when he sees him after many years, he discovers that the brother will spend the rest of his life in wheel chair. Boro constantly fights with Jasna, and he doesn't speak at all to his father Pako, whom he blames for his mother's death. In two weeks in August 1995, Boro will solve the years long dispute with his father, he will learn to be a better husband and a father.

When two enemy sides ex-change the captives in the middle of a minefield, a nameless man without identity and memory, subsequently named Jakov, leaves the column unnoticed and wanders around in order to minimize other people's sufferings. On his dangerous journey, he meets a female first-fighter who runs an orphanage, a commander who got back from Foreign legion and runs a defense line from a disco club, and goes through many other adventures only to end up in the endless backwaters of the Neretva river where war threats to arrive.

Iva is a girl who receives a small digital video camera for her fourteenth birthday. Delighted by her new toy, the girl immediately starts taping everything around her, recording a series of events surrounding her birthday celebration on her first tape. These ninety minutes form the film What Iva Recorded on October 21st, 2003.

Dramatic story of a returnee from Argentina who tries to find answers to the unfortunate events from the past.

Short hommage to the legendary actor Clint Eastwood.

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.

After their son has been beaten up in the street, parents find their world of false security collapsing and have to re-examine their lives and question everything into what they believed.

During the Croatian War of Independance, former French Foreign Legion operrative Ante Gotovina offers his expertise to the newly founded Army of the Republic of Croatia, quickly gaining the favour of the country's higher ups and becoming one of the conflict's most recognizable faces, loved by his troops and feared by his enemies.

Classical music program on one Zagreb radio station is suddenly interrupted when disturbed war veteran, armed with hadngrenade and explosives, breaks in with strange demands and convincing threats.

The Heart of Vukovar is a Croatian documentary which shows the events of the Vukovar war hospital during the Croatian Homeland War. The hospital was a symbol of the defense of Vukovar agains the occupying Serbian forces. The movie shows how it managed to operate under impossible conditions after being bombarded, up until the day the city fell to occupying forces

Siblings Lela and Vid have an enduring relationship, despite the toxic enviroment created by their parents. However, on New Years Eve of the year 2000, their bond will be broken once and for all.

During a reality show a war starts, but the producer will do anything to hide it from the contestants.

A sad story of Pula (Pola), a town on the Croatian coast hibernating from one tourist season to another. It follows daily routines of its inhabitants, which can seem absurd and tragicomic.

A road trip comedy about a pig that is about to lose her virginity amid a brewing war.

One hundred years after the invention of film, Croatian film icon Mr. Fulir, who serves as the author’s alter-ego, comes up with the Faustian idea to bring back his youth. With a group of famous actors, he enthusiastically attempts to remake lost Croatian films from the silent era.

Daša, a succsesful entrepeneur, returns to Croatia to take care of her dying mother after years of working abroad, learning to value her family and take the wheel as the new head of the household.

A young violinist who plays at the war front decides to join his parents in Vienna after his best friend gets killed.

Pero is a professional funeral speaker in a small Slovenian town. His unique gift is to make every funeral that extra bit special. Pero just can't help turning his eulogies into witty personal confessions that bring the grieving crowd to tears for all the wrong reasons.

Emil, 12 year old, is fascinated with Dino, his mother's young boyfriend and small time drug dealer. One night, he witnesses Dino do something that will change his entire world.

True stories of the Croatian People's struggle to overcome oppression from communist Yugoslavia and the 1990's fight to save their war ravaged homeland.

Two best friends spend an afternoon on a football field, dreaming of making it to the local football team. But dreams come with a price.

A famous photographer and his wife are rekindling their relationship by moving in a remote hut. Going through the up and downs of marriage: fights, tenderness, even a love child that suddenly passes away. Did time really pass or does his narcolepsy got abused by his wife for her immoral purposes?

It's the 1970s in Communist Yugoslavia. Mother is secretly celebrating Easter at home with children. Father, an army officer and ingrained communist, bursts in during the celebration…

"Croatia 2000 - Who Wants To Be A President" is a feature-length documentary film about dramatic political events that occurred in the period between the death of Croatian president Franjo Tudjman and the victory of Stipe Mesić in the presidential elections. Incessantly following (sometimes with ten cameras) the most influential figures in Croatian political life, cameras witnessed the moments of their biggest battle, their greatest victory and crushing defeat, and days of great strain, passion and political combat.

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.

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.

In 1992, the Yugoslav army and Serbian paramilitary forces captured one-third of Croatia as the country was engulfed in a state of war. A squad of fighters is defending their position in the small but strategically significant village of Sunja, where the invaders have surrounded them on three sides. Ivan Salaj, a young and gifted director who was still enrolled in film school at the time, chooses to use their story as the subject of his student film. Considered one of the most important films from a period when Croatian independence was still at stake, it provides an accurate portrayal of life on the front lines. What makes Hotel Sunja even more special is that it was made by a group of students who risked their lives to make the movie.

She watches him through the window as he loads the final pieces of furniture into the truck. They are counting down the last hours in their home. Their seven-month-old baby is asleep, unaware of the trouble brewing. They will either vacate the apartment peacefully, or they will be forcefully evicted. Their home, her father's legacy, used to be their safe haven, their family nest. Now, corrupt courts, greedy bankers, and unscrupulous real estate investors have turned it into a site of their worst nightmares. As tension rise, they struggle to preserve their relationship. In the morning, as police knocks on their door, their future seems uncertain, but their options are very clear: either accept injustice or show resistance.

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OHO is considered one of the most interesting, complex and important examples of post-war avant-garde art in Central and Eastern Europe. After achieving major success as one of the first from Eastern Europe to exhibit at New York's MoMA, the group disbanded in 1971. OHO was not just an art collective but a unique cultural phenomenon that explored the visible and the immaterial through art, philosophy, sociology, science and coexistence with the earth and nature. Already in the 1960s, the group was raising relevant questions about anthropocentrism, ecology and the economics of the art. This documentary about OHO by Damjan Kozole is rich in never-before-seen archival material and, for the first time, comprehensively presents this inspiring phenomenon of intertwining art and life. - Slovenian Film Database

After finding out by chance that his ex-girlfriend Mina’s mother died, Simon decides to steal her body to provoke cathartic processes in Mina. Mina hasn’t been in contact with her mother for years because of some dark family secrets. Simon plans to keep the body hidden for a few days and then revive it. He possesses the powers needed to do this. However, the body is stolen from Simon and he has great difficulty retrieving it. Unaware of Simon’s problems, Mina confronts her past and the emotional baggage she’s been carrying for years.

A homeless man who lives in abandoned bus finds out that his daughter comes from Germany to meet him for the first time in twelve years. Ashamed of his present situation and unable to cope with it, he breaks into apartment of his rich ex-friend who is involved in criminal activities.

Documentary about Goran Ivanišević's incredible Wimbeldon win in 2001 as a wild card.

The story takes place in Osijek in 1968. Seventeen-year-old Tomo is the greatest hope the town of Osijek has for winning the Junior Cup of Yugoslavia. Josip Broz Tito himself is expected to come to Osijek to open the competition. Nevertheless, Tomo is more interested in girls than in rowing. The beautiful prostitute Betika and a lovely girl named Jasna have captured his heart. Unfortunately, he has impotence issues of which even his doctors are unaware. Therefore, is unable to realize his sexual fantasies. Finally, he ends up in a hospital where local members of the political elite persuade him to compete in the cup. These pressures come to a head when his father is taken to prison as a political suspect.

On the 1991 European Basketball Championship an incredible event occured. A team of some of the greatest Balkan basketball stars accepted gold and watched the flag of their country be lifted up. The flag of a country that no longer existed.