12/07/2023 - The helmer’s fourth feature will be a youth drama in which a girl joins forces with her former bullies to halt a construction project led by her father

The young cast on the set of Block 5 (© Luka Matijevec)

On Saturday 8 July, Klemen Dvornik started shooting his new feature, Block 5 [+see also:
film review
film profile], on location in Ljubljana. According to the schedule, principal photography will last for 30 days. Block 5 is a fiction feature aimed at children and youth audiences, and revolves around the topic of searching for acceptance, camaraderie and activism.

The film follows the main protagonist, a girl named Alma who comes to a new neighbourhood with her father, Filip. Alma is still grieving for her mother, who was killed on an eco-activism mission in the Amazon rainforest, while also having to contend with bullying at school, with the main culprits being her classmate Luna and her skater friends. When Alma learns that the neighbourhood playground is about to be turned into a car park and her father is the chief engineer on the project, she decides to join forces with her former nemeses in order to put a stop to it.

Dvornik’s previous credits include a number of shorts and music videos, as well as the features On Our Own Vesna (2002), Bread and Circuses (2011) and Buoyancy (2016). Lately, he has been active on Slovenian television, directing all six episodes of the successful crime series The Lake and the mini-series Lenin Park. For his next project, he said that he wants to make a contemporary, communicative film that can reach youth audiences who grow up in the virtual world of social media. “In addition to making the film an exciting viewing experience, I also want to send a message to children that we should not give up and that, if we work together and alongside each other, we can contribute to making a change and building a better future,” he added.

The film features five children in major roles, who were selected from among 510 youngsters in an extensive casting process led by casting director Slobodan Dedeić, best known for his work with Emir Kusturica. First-timers Kaja Zabert and Kaja Šuštar play Alma and Luna, respectively, while Youri Friderich, Niko Lemark and David Trontelj take on other roles. The adult characters are played by an international cast headed up by renowned actor Marko Mandić (whose credits include the 2013 German western Gold [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Thomas Arslan
film profile], the 2017 Hollywood action-comedy The Hitman’s Bodyguard and Dalibor Matanić’s The Dawn [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Dalibor Matanić
film profile], among others). Alongside Mandić, Block 5 features a cast of regional actors, including Gregor Zorc from Slovenia, Ivana Roščić and Enis Bešlagić from Croatia, as well as Serbian actor Tihomir Stanić.

The script was written by Dora Šustić. The leading crew members are cinematographer David Hofmann, editor Ivana Fumić, production designer Miha Knific, costume designer Katarina Šavs and make-up artist Mojca Gorogranc Petrushevska.

Block 5 is a Slovenian-Croatian-Czech-Serbian co-production. The main producer is Branislav Srdić for A Atalanta, while the co-production partners are Zavod December (producers Vlado Bulajić and Lija Pogačnik), Bfilm from the Czech Republic (Jakub Rálek), Living Pictures from Serbia (Dimče Stojanovski) and Antitalent from Croatia (Katarina Prpić and Danijel Pek). Block 5 has received financial support from the Slovenian Film Centre, RTV Slovenia, Film Center Serbia and the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, as well as Eurimages.