Pula Film Festival to screen record 23 films in national competition
- The 60th Pula Film Festival (July 13-27) will present an unprecedented number of 24 films in competition sections, out of which ten are co-productions with minority Croatian share
The Croatian national Pula Film Festival, which was founded exactly 60 years ago as showcase of Yugoslav films, running this year from July 13-27, will present a total of 23 feature films in two competition strands: 13 in the main section, and ten in the minority co-production category.
The festival will open with Handymen, the seventh feature film by Dalibor Matanić, two-time winner of Golden Arena for Best Director in Pula. The comedy about a housewife whose problems with men are not limited only to her clumsy husband, stars Anita Ćurković, Nikša Butijer and Goran Bogdan and was produced by the Croatian Radio Television.
The two most prolific production companies in Croatia, Kinorama and Interfilm, will have three and four films respectively in the main section.
Kinorama is coming with crime drama One Shot [+see also:
trailer
film profile], first feature film of TV director and actor Robert Orhel; the real event-inspired drama Hush [+see also:
trailer
interview: Tihana Lazovic
film profile], writer-director Lukas Nola's fifth film; and box office hit The Mysterious Boy (review) by Dražen Žarković, second installment of the franchise based on popular children's novels by Ivan Kušan. The film has sold almost 69,000 admissions in 19 weeks on release.
Interfilm is bringing an even bigger hit, Vinko Brešan's The Priest's Children [+see also:
film review
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interview: Vinko Bresan
film profile], (news) the third-highest local grosser ever in the territory with 158,000 admissions. Commercially, a lot is also expected from Tomislav Mršić's comedy Cowboys [+see also:
trailer
film profile], based on a smash hit theatre show in which eight outsiders are trying to mount a theatre production.
Interfilm will also present the first feature film by writer-director Dario Pleić, thriller Not All About Money. But the company’s strongest suit in the awards race is writer-director Zrinko Ogresta, winner of six Golden Arenas, including two for Best Film, with his fifth feature Projections, a drama set in one of the sessions of a final-year programme in group therapy for psychology professionals.
Another award front-runner is Bobo Jelčić's A Stranger [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bobo Jelcic
film profile], (news) a Spiritus Movens production that world-premiered in Berlinale's Forum and generated a strong buzz in critical circles at home, especially for performance of the lead actor Bogdan Diklić.
The national competition also includes Nevio Marasović's drama Vis-à-vis, jointly produced by Antitalent Produkcija and Copycat; Petar Orešković’s dark comedy Simon Magus (Alka Film), Dan Oki’s social drama The Farewell (Udruga Kazimir), and highly anticipated art comedy The Bug, the second directing effort by locally famous actor Filip Šovagović, starring two-time winner of Sarajevo Film Festival’s Best Actress award Nataša Škaričić.
The festival’s minority co-production competition is dominated by films made with neighbouring countries. Five are majority-produced by Slovenia: Nejc Gazvoda’s Dual [+see also:
film review
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interview: Nejc Gazvoda
film profile], (news) Martin Turk’s Feed Me with Your Words, Matevž Lucar’s Good to Go, Marko Naberšnik’s Shanghai Gypsy, and Miroslav Mandić’s Adria Blues [+see also:
trailer
film profile]. Serbia is represented by Srdan Golubović’s Circles [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nikola Rakocevic
interview: Srdan Golubovic
film profile], (news [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nikola Rakocevic
interview: Srdan Golubovic
film profile]) Goran Paskaljević’s When Day Breaks [+see also:
trailer
film profile], and Goran Marković’s The Forgerer. Peter Greenaway’s Goltzius and the Pelican Company [+see also:
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film profile] from Holland and Mihaela Kezele’s My Beautiful Country [+see also:
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film profile] from Germany round off the selection.
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