06/10/2008

The Croatian Association of Film Workers has chosen Arsen Anton Ostojic’s No One’s Son as its Academy Awards submission for Best Foreign Language Film, in a competition that included Dejan Acimovic’s I Have To Sleep, My Angel [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Dalibor Matanic’s Kino Lika [+see also:
trailer
film profile]s and Lukas Nola’s True Miracle.

The crime drama takes place in today’s Croatia and tells the story of a soldier who lost both legs in the war in former Yugoslavia and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. He is in search of his own identity while his father runs for the parliament and his mother has killed her former lover.

The film won six Golden Arenas at the national Pula Film Festival, including Best Film, Best Director and Best Actor for Alen Liveric. In its home territory it is being handled by distributor Discovery through a reverse distribution plan: it has started playing in smaller towns before moving to key cities.

Last year Kristijan Milic’s The Living and the Dead won eight Golden Arenas and was not released theatrically in its home territory until January of this year, despite also winning a string of awards at international festivals such as the Lecce Festival of European Cinemas, the Brothers Manaki International Cinematographers Film Festival and the Tetouan Mediterranean Film Festival.

This is very indicative of the state of the distribution of local films in Croatia, as audiences do not seem interested in local product.

However, Croatia’s 2007 Oscar submission was Ognjen Svilicic’s Armin [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which was released in Croatia and was also a winner at the Festroia, Karlovy Vary, Palm Springs and Durban festivals. At Pula it only won Best Screenplay and Best Actor for Emir Hadzihafizbegovic.