14th Liburnia Film Festival was opened last night in the splendid ambience of Opatija's Summer stage. As the evening set, domestic and international audience that gathered on the Small Summer Stage looking for great documentaries, festival friends, donors, guests and media representatives were greeted by Oliver Sertić, festival director and selector and Jelena Androić, executive director., Deputy mayor Fernando Kirigin, speaking on behalf of the City of Opatija and deputy county prefect Petar Mamula , speaking as a representative of Primorje and Gorski kotar County, also addressed the audience.
After opening speeches, documentary Heritage, directed by Sanja Šamanović, was screened as the first film of the evening. This world premiere of the film was presented by the author herself, who described it as an intimate display of a relationship between mother and daughter who, after a long time spent apart, start living together once again. This was followed by the Croatian premiere of Free by Tomislav Žaja, a feature-length documentary that deals with the process of deinstitutionalization of people with intellectual difficulties.
Second program slot began with Short Family Film - Igor Bezinović’s documentary on the topic of probation, and Confusions by Lana Kosovac, a film that follows chaotic making of a play of the same name. After the screenings, evening of great atmosphere and relaxed hanging out was continued in Old School Pub, with a concert by bend Žen. Audience has time until Thursday to vote for the best film, director and producer of which will receive a sculpture by Saša Jantolek as well as a financial prize of 1.000$. Speaking of audience votes, during yesterday's voting, Free was given a high middle grade of 4,45. Check out our photo gallery to see highlights of Day 1!
We began our Tuesday activities with Coffee with author, that is, authors. These events will be led daily by Marko Njegić, member of the LFF festival jury. This year's LFF novelty is Off program held in Villa Antonio. At 5PM, this is where festival's premiere of She, The Theatre will be held - a film about the first female theatre manager in the history of Croatian's theatre - Mani Gotovac. We will meet this idiosyncratic theatrologist through stories shared by her colleagues, archival material and scenes from plays "Tell me about Gorki" and "Several imaginary scenes". After the film, a discussion with Marina Baničević, director, and Saša Stanić, producer, will be held.
In competition at Summer Stage Opatija
Starting at 8:30 PM, festival audience will get the chance to see seven new documentaries by Croatian authors divided into two slots. Two of them will be medium-length films - Dum spiro spero, made by author of several serials and animated films Pero Kvesić, and Candidate by Tomislav Pulić and Robert Tomić.. In Dum spiro spero, the author uses the camera to contemplate on the everyday and his own coping with a serious illness, while The Candidate deals with topics familiar from last year's elections for the Government and those for the representatives of a skyscraper in Zagreb.
Monika Rusak is competing for one of seven festival awards with her experimental short feature Forever dealing with the passage of time and life. Zorko Sirotić, who in the film Cabbage follows everyday rituals of his friend suffering from cancer and Elvis Lenić, who contemplates events from World War II in his film 9th of January, are authors returning to the festival. Two films in the competition deal with the bureaucratic system: Tin Bačun displays his own family's pain for colonel Nenad Babić in Clerical Error, while Maja Bošković and Renata Lučić show the fight of Renata's grandmother Eva for adaptation of her house that was damaged in floods a couple of years ago in her film Land Parcel 81/5.
After the screenings, you can find our guests and festival team at the after party in Caffe bar Eugenian.
