Fourteenth edition of Liburnia Film Festival will take place on the Summer Stage in Opatija from 22 to 26 August. During the five day program, 28 new Croatian documentaries will be presented, 22 of them competing for one of the seven festival prizes and further six of them shown in the accompanying program. This was announced at the press conference on Tuesday by the festival director Oliver Sertić, executive director of LFF Jelena Androić and Festival Opatija director, Rajna Miloš.
„We are pleased to know that, once again, some movie-makers chose Liburnia Film Festival as an enevt where they will show their films for the first time. This will serve, I believe, as a basis of successful festival and TV distribution“, said Oliver Sertić, festival director and selector. „One of such movies is a great short feature Heritage by Sanja Šamanović, an author that was a guest of LFF many times before, as a director and as a member of the jury. This is the movie that will open the 14th edition of LFF, on Monday, 22 August 2016.
Our old acquaintant Đuro Gavran, who won the award for best direction (movie Verdict) three years ago, will have the world premiere of his new movie, News from Laayouna. This time, with his strong, emotional story, he takes us to West Sahara, in front of the tents of displaced people. We will also show short features 201507STDR-L by an author from Rovinj Vjekoslav Gašparović and You’re tiny little man ant by the artist and performer from Pula i.j.piNA “, Sertić announced.
LFF festival audience will have the chance to watch, for the first time in Croatia, an Italian-Croatian feature documentary The Thin Line by Nina Mimica and Paola Sangiovanni, a powerful film about raping offences during the war in Somalia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, seen from the perspective of the offender as well as the victim, as well as the new documentary by Tomislav Žaja titled Free, a warm tale about adaptation of people with intellectual disabilities to new life conditions within the process of deinstitutionalization. This film, although appearing for the first time on a Croatian festival, arrives to LFF after a series of successful screenings and awards on other world festivals. Its first festival appearance will also have Land Parcel 81/5 by Maja Bošković and Renata Lučić, a film created as a result of Fade In's workshop Building characters on film and Irena's Mirror by Leon Rizmaul, a reconstruction of a sort of HRT's serial Portraits and meetings.
Winner of this year’s Octavian award for best documentary of Croatian Association of Film Critics, an intimate tale A Two Way Mirror by Katarina Zrinka Matijević will also be shown to Liburnia audience. This is only one of four Croatian documentaries included in the official contestant program of Sarajevo Film Festival. LFF will also show Dum Spiro Spero by writer and documentary debutant Pero Kvesić, winner of Grand Prix at the Days of Croatian Film and laureate of award „Vedran Šamanović“ that was recently awarded to him at Pula Film Festival.
After its world premiere in Pula, Confusions, first feature documentary of another LFF laureate Lana Kosovac (audience award on 11th LFF for Love Park) will be shown in Opatija, a dramatic documentary Confusions. Direct, committed and censure-free, Lana follows the formation of a show by Branko brezovac and its premiere in New York.
Competing at LFF are the festival's old friends, igor Bezinović with Short Family Film, Robert Tomić Zuber and Tomislav Pulić with their very actual film The Candidate, Arsen Oremović with his Third Best, a film that criticizes the phenomenon of Croatian football and Toći Gaćina, director from Split, who in a funny Tourism! deals with the reverse side of the flagship of Croatian economy.
Three authors that can be classified as documentary experimentators of the new generation will present their new films. Zorko Sirotić will present his short feature Cabbage, Nikica Zdunić his experimental-documentary essay Sanja, while Elvis Lenić reminds us of WWII events in the short feature 9th of January.
Films of new documentary forces are also a part of the program: Clerical Error by Tin Bačun about the diabolical bureaucratic system in our country, Cile by Katarina Radetić, a debutant, about a one-man band, a subtle, intimate „generational documentary“ Forever by Monika Rusak and a film by the youngest authors of this year's festival – Marina Lalić and Ivica Lasić – Right to Work:The Way We Left It, a collective portrayal of workers of „Uzor“ after they lost the final battle in the process of privatization of their company. The film was created as a part of the documentary workshop on Pretty women save the day festival, while at the 25th Days of Croatian Film the film received Ethics and human rights award.
On the last day of LFF, off the contest, new films of Restart Production Company, co-organizer of the festival will be shown, as well as selected works of participants of Restart's School of documentary film. Something About Life by Nebojša Slijepčević, Islands of Forgotten Cinemas by Ivan Ramljak, United Front of Opportunists by Vedran Senjanović and Dejan Oblak and Dragon Woman by Ivana Sansević will be shown, while the School will be represented by Before the Flags by Sanja Bistričić and Go Hard or Go Home by Dražen Puklavec. This appearance will also be a personal and film debut for the two authors.
ACCOMPANYING PROGRAM: WORKSHOPS FILM BEGINNER AND I SHOOT FOR THE FIRST TIME, „NAKED ISLAND“ CASE STUDY AND COFFEE WITH THE AUTHORS
Following the tradition, LFF will be the place where film will be discussed and learned about. This year, Film beginner educations for the youngest ones will take place in association with Restart, while for the older ones – I shoot for the first time, organized in association with Filmaktiv from Rijeka. The audience, regardless of their age and experience, will get the chance to participate in the case study of last year's documentary gem, film „Naked Island“. Director Tiha K. Gudac and editor Dragan von Petrović will talk about the process of film making.
Together with a number of domestic and international awards, „Naked Island“ won the best film award on 13th LFF, while Petrović was awarded as the best editor. This will continue the in-depth presentations of creation of best and most successful Croatian documentaries, a practice that we started two years ago. Also, after several years, we bring back Coffee with authors – a moderated discussion with authors and producers of films shown on the previous night“, said Sertić.
„LIBURNIA SAILS“ TOUR AND „ACCIDENTAL CINEMA“ PROGRAM PROVE GREAT INTEREST OF THE AUDIENCE FOR THE DOCUMENTARIES
„14th edition of the festival was announced by a series of screenings that took place as a part of Liburnia sails tour. Of special interest is the still actual sailing in the gardens of Rijeka's Governor's Palace, and we believe that the approaching sailing into Lopar which will take place between 6 and 8 August will be of special interest. This year we also started Accidental cinema, a program of intimate screenings taking place on hidden locations. Aim of both programs is to bring closer Croatian documentary to the wider audience. According to reactions so far, especially in places such as Gospić, or even Rijeka, it seems that there definitely is an audience for this type of films.
Also, we believe that we spread the good news about Croatian documentaries among the international audience, which is why the entire program is translated into English. Finally, we also care about the audience that is being built from the inside – volunteer applications are currently taking place, and they last until August 1“, said executive director of LFF Jelena Androić.
OPPORTUNITY FOR AN UNFORGETTABLE SUMMER ENDING
Summer stage in Opatija is the new host of Liburnia Film Festival. „When a manifestation celebrates its first jubilee, we can say that it becomes traditional, serious and – what is of utmost importance – well received by the audience. For thirteen years, LFF matured and grew in the fantastic ambiance of Ičići harbor, just an inch away from the sea.
Although we showed „Meeting LFF“ programs on the Summer stage in previous years, and, hopefully, turned out to be good hosts, we were really happy to be approached by Mr. Igor Bajok, “father” of the festival, I dare to say, and Ms. Jelena Androić, the new executive director, with the inquiry about holding the entire festival on the Summer stage. Production requirements and development year after year surpassed what one improvised cinema, as beautiful as it may be, can offer so we are really looking forward that LFF will write new pages of its history on the Summer stage. I hope that the audience will have a great time watching new works by Croatian documentary makers and I believe that, as hosts, we will justify the trust given to us by LFF team. Let's breath movies, this is a chance for an unforgettable ending of the summer!“, said Rajna Miloš, director of Festival Opatija.
14th Liburnia Film Festival is organized by Liburnia Film Festival Association. Co-organizers are Restart and Delta Association, and partner Festival Opatija. Festival friends include Filmaktiv, Prague Institute of Documentary and Balkan Documentary Center. The program is executed with support of Croatian audiovisual center, Society of Croatian film directors, City of Opatija, Primorje and Gorski kotar county, Opatija Tourist Board and, of course, the faithful festival audience.
