PRODUCTION Slovenia / Italy / Croatia
Martin Turk starts shooting Don't Forget to Breathe
- The Slovenian director's second feature film is a coming-of-age drama with an international cast and crew combining first-timers and prominent professionals
Slovenian filmmaker Martin Turk – best known for his award-winning shorts Every Day Is Not the Same and Stealing Corn, and his debut thriller Feed Me With Your Words – started shooting his second feature film, Don't Forget to Breathe [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], last week in the Bela Krajina region of Southern Slovenia.
The film focuses on fifteen-year-old Klemen, who lives with his older brother Peter and single mother in a small remote rural town. Klemen's well-established routine of spending time with his beloved brother on the tennis court and by the nearby river gets interrupted by Peter's sudden and passionate love affair with the gorgeous Sonja, which triggers a torrent of conflicting emotions and reckless actions in Klemen.
Klemen is played by high school student Matija Valant, chosen after auditioning more than 200 candidates. Tine Ugrin (Nika [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) stars as Peter, while Klara Kuk,a student at the Ljubljana Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television, plays Sonja. Jakob Cilenšek, Ronja Matijevec Jerman and Iva Krajnc Bagola also star in the film, in addition to the popular Serbian actor Nikola Djuričko.
Croatian cinematographer Radislav Jovanov Gonzo, best known for his work as a music video director, serves as the DoP, while the Italian composer Teho Teardo (Il Divo [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nicola Giuliano
interview: Paolo Sorrentino
interview: Philippe Desandre
film profile])is in charge of the film’s original score.
"Don't Forget to Breathe is an intimate and atmospheric drama about growing up, jealousy, first love, and strong emotions that one is often overcome with during this period of life," says Turk. "As a screenwriter and director, I want to relive this important time and the formative feelings we were all familiar with once, but that we have since forgotten in the haste of our daily lives, even though they have shaped our personalities decisively."
The film is being produced by Slovenia's Bela Film in co-production with Quasar (Italy), Studio Dim (Croatia), RTV Slovenija and RAI Cinema (Italy), with backing from the Slovenian Film Centre, FVG Audiovisual Fund, Croatian Audiovisual Centre, Creative Europe - MEDIA programme, RE-ACT development scheme and with the technical support of Viba Film. International sales are being handled by the Italian outfit Intramovies.
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