18/03/2025 - According to the Slovenian producer, documentaries stimulate conversations about ways to advance and improve human rights around the world

Zoran Dževerdanović is a producer based in Ljubljana. He graduated in Chemical Engineering, but his passion for film and art projects led him to found Blade Production. He has produced many award-winning films, such as the horror movie Idyll [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], the political thriller All Against All, and the short film Into the Blue, which won a Special Jury Mention at the 67th Berlinale. His first documentary Punk Under a Communist Regime explores the influence of the Punk movement on the communist regime, and is a Slovenian-Serbian-Bulgarian co-production. An interview with him, now selected for the 2025 Emerging Producers programme (read his EP profile here).

Why do you produce documentaries? Do you see documentary cinema as an instrument of social and political change?
Zoran Dževerdanović: I started producing documentaries recently, having just finished my first feature-length documentary Punk Under a Communist Regime. I was very passionate about documentary production so now I have already three additional feature documentaries in late development, with very different topics, like inclusion, bringing culture to space, and environmental issues.

I was fascinated by documentary production because of the in-depth research involved and the potential for impact on society. I see documentary cinema as an instrument of social and political changes that can stimulate conversations about ways to advance and improve human rights around the world.

How do you achieve and maintain work-life balance and foster overall well-being?
It is very difficult to maintain balance between work and time for personal well-being, due to the unpredictable nature of filmmaking, which is in principle difficult to schedule.

To keep my focus as much as possible and take care about my well-being I regularly play basketball, take daily a long walk, and try to spend as much time as possible with my daughter.

Where do you find audiences for your films?
The target audience depends on the genre and topics of our films. For example, the first feature film that I produced was the horror film Idyll with very niche audience which we mostly find through the Méliès International Festivals Federation, reaching a worldwide audience. The film had very successful worldwide distribution for more then 10 years.

My latest film production was the feature film Tartini's Key, targeting children and youth audiences. Tartini's Key is an adaptation of a very popular Slovene children's book which is part of an education program in primary schools in Slovenia. So our target audiences were mostly children in primary schools and families. To reach our audiences I worked with PR and social media professionals (Tik Tok, FB, Instagram) and have numerous premieres with the famous youth band who also performed in the film. Additionally, our PR team created educational school materials to help teachers of all primary schools to educate children about different topics in the film and encourage them to visit cinemas. The result of the promotion was very successful since we were awarded with the Golden Roll, an award marking more than 25,000 admissions in Slovene cinemas.

What projects do you have underway (including fiction films and other projects)?
I have a slate of the following project in different stages of development.

The Vultures – a feature psychological thriller in late development, directed by Vida Breže. Seven high-end lawyers stranded in a dilapidated mountain winter cabin must unravel a team-building riddle imposed by their vindictive boss.

End of Gravity – a landmark Slovenian future-mentary in late development directed by Igor Zupe, documenting the visionary work of Dragan Živadinov, a theatre director and pioneer of post-gravitational art. His 50-year theatrical project, Noordung: 1995–2045, explores the intersection of theatre, science, and space exploration, inspired by Herman Potočnik Noordung, and the future of human civilization beyond Earth.

Quixote’s Camera – 10 Letters from beyond Light, feature documentary in late development, directed by Cordelia Dvorak. A filmmaker and a photographer, who lost his eyesight as a child, question the visual addiction of our times.  On their expedition into the world beyond light, they take us, the supposedly sighted, to the origin of all images – back to our imagination.

Half Life – a feature documentary in late development. A film essay by Maxime Berthou and Mark Požlep, which, by establishing a relationship between specific Japanese cultural and historical tradition, the beauty of nature, and ecological disasters, aims to address global issues of social values and ecology.

White Blossoms – a feature drama in development, directed by Bojan Labović. A love story based on the novel White Water Lilies (1930) by Slovenian writer Ferdo Godina. There is no such thing as forbidden love.

Village Poison – a feature thriller in development, also directed by Bojan Labović. A crime writer in creative crisis moves to the countryside with his wife, where he soon becomes convinced that he is on the trail of a real-life murder – while his marriage is put to the test.

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EMERGING PRODUCERS is a leading promotional and educational project, which brings together talented European documentary film producers. The programme is organised and curated by the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival.

Deadline for applications to the EMERGING PRODUCERS 2026 edition is 31 March 2025.