28/02/2013 - Branko Ištvančić, director of one of the highest local grossers in Croatia ever Ghost in the Swamp, has finished shooting his second feature film The Bridge at the End of the World

Croatian director Branko Ištvančić (photo), best known for children's film Ghost in the Swamp, the sixth highest local grosser in the territory with 62,785 admissions in 2006, has finished the principal photography on his new film, the thriller The Bridge at the End of the World.

The film is set in a Croatian village near the Bosnian border in the late 90s, after the recent Balkan wars. Croats whose villages in Bosnia have been destroyed in the war are now living in the houses of Serbs who have been chased out of Croatia, and the Serbs are now coming back. In this complicated situation and highly charged atmosphere, Jozo, an old Bosnian Croat living in a Serbian house, disappears. The policeman Filip is in charge of the case and although everyone believes that a returning Serb has murdered Jozo, he launches a detailed investigation.

Written by Josip Mlakić (The Living and the Dead), the film features a cast of Croatian, Bosnian and Serbian actors, including Aleksandar Bogdanović, Boro Stjepanović, Sanja Radišić, Slobodan Ćustić and Slaven Knezović. It was co-produced by Croatia's Artizana Film, Serbia's Kinematografska kuća, Bosnia's Heft produkcija, and France's Dari Films.

Meanwhile, box office of Croatian films is on the rise. Vinko Brešan's The Priest's Children has become the highest grosser since 2000 with 155,539 admissions and gross BO of €575,198, and another recent release, Vlatka Vorkapić’s Sonja and the Bull [+see also:
trailer
film profile] took the third place with 96,963 tickets and €355,476. A lot is now expected from the Feb 28 launch of Dražen Žarković’s children’s film Mysterious Boy, sequel to last year’s hit Koko and the Ghosts [+see also:
film review
film profile].