Croatian filmmaker Hana Jušić, whose feature debut, Quit Staring at My Plate [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Hana Jušić
scheda film], premiered in the 2016 edition of the Giornate degli Autori and went on to enjoy a long and fruitful festival run, has finished the shooting phase of her sophomore feature-length effort, God Will Not Help. Principal photography took place from the end of August until the beginning of October in the Dinara and Svilaja mountains, around the town of Knin in the Dalmatia region, while the crew moved to the North Adriatic island of Krk for the last few days.

In her script, Jušić sets the plot at the beginning of the 20th century, in inland Dalmatia, where a Chilean woman named Teresa (played by actress and filmmaker Manuela Martelli) comes to an isolated community of cattle herders, claiming that she is the widow of the village elder’s brother, who has died in a mining accident. Her arrival disrupts the community’s rigid structure, but also brings notions of freedom and relief.

Along with Martelli, the rest of the cast consists of Ana Marija Veselčić (glimpsed in Pelican [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Filip Heraković
scheda film]), Mauro Ercegović (seen in Carbide [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Josip Žuvan
scheda film]), Nikša Butijer (who also collaborated with the filmmaker on her previous feature), Filip Đurić, Tina Orlandini, Ivan Skoko, Vinko Kraljević and others. The film was lensed by Jana Plećaš and will be edited by Jan Klemsche. Laura Boni handled the production design, Mojca Gorogranc Petrushevska the make-up, while Katarina Pilić designed the costumes.

The main producer of the film is Ankica Jurić Tilić for her Croatian company, Kinorama. The co-producers are Ada Solomon (for Romania’s Micro Film), Didar Domehri (for France’s Maneki Films), Yorgos Tsourgiannis (for Greece’s Horsefly), Aleš Pavlin and Andrej Štritof (for Slovenia’s Perfo), and Ines Vasiljević (for Italy’s Nightswim). The script was developed at the Cinéfondation residency and the TorinoFilmLab workshop, while the project was also rewarded by ReAct.

God Will Not Help has received financial support from the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, the Romanian National Film Center, Italy’s Ministry of Culture, the Greek Film Centre, the CNC, the Slovenian Film Centre and Eurimages. It also received technical support from Viba Film, and has been pre-bought by Croatian Radio-Television (HRT) and Greek Radio-Television (ERT).