16/07/2025 - The Slovenian helmer’s debut feature tells the story of an unlikely friendship and a summer adventure set in the mid-1990s

Last week, in the Serbian region of Vojvodina, up-and-coming Slovenian filmmaker Áron Horváth Botka commenced the principal photography stage of his debut in the feature-length format, Lost Years. Shooting will take place at several specific locations in and around towns north of the regional capital, Novi Sad. The inspiration for the film came from the memories of the summers that the filmmaker spent at his grandmother’s in the region.

Since 2015, Botka has made several shorts, including Bits, which premiered at the 2020 edition of the Festival of Slovenian Film, won the Vesna Award there and travelled around numerous festivals afterwards. On the occasion of the start of shooting for his debut feature, he said: “Lost Years will be a collage of memories, a time capsule of sorts, consisting of tiny moments – the ones that often go unnoticed but form an essential part of growing up.”

The story follows a grocery store clerk named Borš, who lives and works in a small Vojvodina town. One day, he meets Tana, who has come from Hungary for a visit. The two embark on a quest to find her lost backpack. During their journey through the countryside, an unlikely friendship blossoms between them, changing their lives forever.

The cast is led by first-timer Aleksa Sekelj, who plays Borš, and Lilla Kizlinger (glimpsed in prominent Hungarian movies like Explanation for Everything [+see also:
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Lost Years is a Slovenian-Serbian co-production between Temporama (represented by producers Andraž and Jerca Jerič) and Set Sail Films (represented by co-producers Andrijana Sofranić Šućur and Miloš Ivanović). RTV Slovenia also serves as a co-production company. The project was supported by the Slovenian Film Centre, Film Center Serbia, Creative Europe – MEDIA and RE-ACT.