Petar Glomazić is a Montenegrin aeronautical engineer, former CEO, life-long activist, filmmaker and independent producer. His debut feature-length documentary, To Hold a Mountain, co-directed with Biljana Tutorov, who also served as the film’s producer, premiered at Sundance in January, where it won the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema Documentary Competition. Ever since, the movie has been touring international festivals and reaping awards. It is scheduled to close the Herceg Novi Film Festival, while Tutorov and Glomazić also presented a case study in the festival’s industry strand, the Montenegro Film Rendezvous. Cineuropa sat down with Glomazić for a talk at the gathering.

Cineuropa: To Hold a Mountain is touring festivals worldwide, reaping awards on its way. From an international standpoint, it has become the most successful Montenegrin film in history. Did you expect such success when you started the project?
Petar Glomazić: Absolutely not. We truly didn't expect this level of international success and reception from audiences worldwide. After our win at Sundance, we picked up several more Grand Prix awards, with the most recent major achievement being the Heart of Sarajevo [see the news]. We initially thought the film would appeal to a specialised audience interested in auteur and documentary cinema, but the reality completely proved us wrong. The doc evokes deep emotions and reflection among festival audiences across the globe – it’s as if cultural barriers simply don't exist for it. Interestingly, it resonates with young people and even teenagers, which is a particularly fascinating takeaway.

How long did the whole thing take in total, from the initial idea, via funding, to filming and post-production?
We worked on this film for eight years. The idea originated back in 2017, and by 2018, we had secured our first round of funding from the Film Centre of Montenegro's grant call for feature documentary production. That was a crucial initial push that got the project off the ground. The main producer and creator of the production concept is Biljana Tutorov, alongside the production company Wake Up Films. In 2019, the project received support from Film Center Serbia, which launched co-production partnerships in Croatia, Slovenia and France – countries with which the company had already closely collaborated. Creatively, this was key, as it allowed us to assemble the strong creative team we had been hoping for. With me having previously worked with Biljana and Wake Up Films as a part of the production team before I founded Ardor Films, everything aligned into an incredibly productive collaboration.

Did you face any specific challenges in certain phases of the project, coming from a small country with cinema infrastructure that is still developing, and also from a region that is not very well known for abundant funds, especially for documentary filmmaking? How did the process go?
Making a documentary like this, we wanted to have enough time, resources and top-tier collaborators at our disposal, which is impossible if you stay strictly within local boundaries. As I mentioned, the film is an international co-production between Montenegro, Serbia, France, Slovenia and Croatia, and it received support from the Council of Europe through the Eurimages programme. Additionally, it was backed by an entire slate of the most prestigious US film funds. Their support was decisive for our final production framework, enabling us to remain independent and fully realise our artistic vision, while also connecting us with many top industry professionals. Looking at the film’s credits, everything seems almost ideal, but the journey to this point was thorny and uncertain, requiring risky investments, major sacrifices and immense skill. When it comes to documentary film production in the region, this is an exceptionally rare, if not unique, case. Building such a framework was only possible thanks to Biljana’s years of dedicated work and investment.

What impact do you believe platforms like the Montenegro Film Rendezvous, which started two years ago as an integral part of the Herceg Novi Film Festival, can have on the further development and international visibility of Montenegrin cinema?
I hadn’t participated in the Montenegro Film Rendezvous until now, but I believe that any systemic effort to strengthen cooperation, open new avenues for collaboration and establish direct contacts is of crucial importance.

Did you have any help from European and international institutions that aim to help independent producers?
We had great support, but also an understanding of this film's specific needs, all of which contributed to this outcome. On several occasions, we presented updated budgets and visions to the institutions, and we were mostly met with understanding. I mentioned the US funds brought into the project by Wake Up Films, which provided liquidity and ensured continuous, uninterrupted work.

Do you have any plans for your next project? Do you intend to realise it the same way?
Right now, we are in the middle of a major festival run for To Hold a Mountain. The awards campaign is heating up and will run for the coming months, followed by theatrical distribution in Montenegro and the region, as well as in the USA, Australia, New Zealand, the Benelux countries and so on. The coming months are already completely mapped out, but I've been preparing two new projects for a while now – one fiction film and one documentary. If a similar production constellation could come together again like it did with this project, it would be truly exceptional.

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