Arsmedia

Genre: Feature fiction film
Duration: cca 100 min
Based on the novel by: Goran Vojnović
Screenplay: Goran Vojnović, Aleksandar Popovski
Script doctor: Stefan Arsenijević
Director: Goran Vojnović
Producer: Boštjan Ikovic

LOGLINE

People remember. And that is their greatest curse.

SYNOPSIS

Thirty-year-old Vladan Borojević, assistant professor at the faculty, lives a normal life with his girlfriend Nadja. Nadja is pregnant and due to give birth soon and they recently moved into a new apartment. However, during one of the lectures, Vladan sees a photo of a soldier who looks like his late father. He types his father’s name into the internet search engine and suddenly everything changes. For almost twenty years, Vladan was convinced that his father, an officer of the Yugoslav National Army, had died in the war, but now it looks he is alive. Moreover, General Nedeljko Borojević is accused of war crimes and has been hiding from the international court in The Hague for years. Vladan lived in Pula as a child, but with the outbreak of war, the family was transferred to Belgrade, from where his father went to the war, while Vladan and his mother Duša fled to her family in Slovenia. Soon after that, Duša told him that Nedeljko had died during the war, trying to protect Vladan from the truth. Determined to contact his father and find out the truth about him, Vladan is forced to contact his estranged mother, Duša, who started a new family in Ljubljana, and with her help he manages to find out Nedeljko’s address in Bosnia. Although Duša is convinced that Nedeljko has long since disappeared from this address, Vladan decides to travel to Bosnia and visit his apartment. Nadja tries to persuade him to stay with her, but it seems that Vladan is becoming obsessed with his search. In Bosnia, in the apartment where his father Nedeljko used to live, Vladan finds Nedeljko’s unsent letter to Duša with a hint of his current whereabouts. But after leaving the apartment, he soon finds himself tied and locked in the trunk of a car. When the trunk finally opens, Vladan finds himself in a desolate place by the river and next to him are three armed men who see him as an unwanted sniffer. Because even decades after the end of the Yugoslav war, some people are ready to kill in order to hide the truth about the crimes committed. But Vladan is determined to find his father, regardless of the consequences.

DIRECTOR’S STATMENT

“War crimes committed by our fathers do not become obsolete, they do not disintegrate along with the countries and they do not fade away with the ideas in the name of which they were committed. War crimes are not forgotten along with the names of war criminals and their victims, when societies discover the magic of forgetting, war crimes do not die along with the victims, their relatives and descendants. War crimes fill the air, flow into rivers and soak into the soil, until they finally enter our blood.”

CREW

Based on the novel by: Goran Vojnović
Screenplay: Goran Vojnović in Aleksandar Popovski
Script doctor: Stefan Arsenijević
Director: Goran Vojnović
Director of Photography: Miloš Srdić
Sound Designer: Boštjan Kačičnik
Production Designer: Nataša Rogelj
Costume Deseigner: Jelena Proković
Make-up Arstist: Goran Ignjatovski
Production Manager: Sandra Ržen
Producer: Boštjan Ikovic

CAST

Vladan – Matevž Sluga
Nadja – Klara Kuk
Duša – Nataša Barbara Gračner
Nedeljko – Dragan Mičanović
Danilo – Zoran Cvijanović
Emir – Izudin Bajrović
Brane – Igor Samobor
Danica – Polona Juh
Miran – Gregor Baković
Mediha – Jasna Žalica
Young Nedeljko – Matija Rupel
Young Duša – Kaja Petrovič
Professor Zarnik – Bojan Emeršič
Gynecologist – Barbara Cerar
Nurse Snežana – Andrijana Boskoska
Nurse Majda – Alenka Kraigher
Doctoral Student  – Benjamin Kernetić
Sound Engineer – David Champaigne
Waiter – Uroš Fürst
Man in a Suit – Boris Šavija
Man in a Leather Jacket – Ivan Pašalić

CO-PRODUCERS

RTV Slovenia – Slovenia
DFPM Kino OKO – N. Macedonia
SET SAIL FILMS – Serbia
TUNA FILM-E – Croatia
FOR A FILM – Austria
MB Grip – Slovenia
NuFrame – Slovenia
Zvokarna – Slovenia

TEHNICAL SERVICES

Viba Film Studio

CO-FUNDING

Slovenian film centre

CO-FUNDING, DEVELOPMENT