If you wish for something hard enough, will the whole universe work in your favour? Stela fell in love with a Balkan musician after seeing him on TV. Determined to meet him, she accepts help from Vera, a glam starlet rumoured to be his mistress. Their worlds collide when Vera promises to rescue Stela from her poverty-stricken life by taking her to Bucharest, where she runs a sex-products business.

Sorella di Clausura is the new film by Serbian-Romanian director Ivana Mladenović, the world premiere of which is taking place in competition at the upcoming Locarno Film Festival (6-16 August).

Ivana Mladenović says, "Primarily, this is an empathetic parody of romantic melodramas. Set on the outskirts of the Balkans during the 2008 crisis, it explores the link between sex and money – if sex can be a substitute for money in a collapsing world."

Mladenović's debut documentary, Turn Off the Lights [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film] (2012), premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and won the Heart of Sarajevo and Romania's Gopo Award for Best Documentary. Her feature Soldiers. Story from Ferentari [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Dawid Ogrodnik
intervista: Ivana Mladenovic
scheda film] (2017) premiered in Toronto's Discovery section and San Sebastián's competition, going on to win the Cineuropa Award in Trieste, and with Ivana the Terrible [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Ada Solomon
scheda film] (2019), her auto-fictional portrait, she won the Cine+ Jury Award in the Filmmakers of the Present section at Locarno.

Written by Mladenović, Adrian Schiop and Momir Milošević, the film stars Katia Pascariu, Cendana Trifan, Miodrag Mladenović, Arnold Kelsch, Cătălin Dordea and Adrian Radu. The film was produced by Ada Solomon through microFILM (Romania) and Mladenović through Dunav 84 (Serbia), and co-produced by Nightswim (Italy) and Boogaloo Films (Spain). International sales are being handled by France's B Rated International.

The poster's graphic designer is Bosnia's Dejan Kršić. Having exhibited in several solo shows and participated in many collective exhibitions and video festivals, he has worked for various magazines and newspapers as a journalist, editor and/or graphic designer.

Check out our exclusive poster below: