The Staff Room is a story about a young and enthusiastic school counsellor who, confronted with the limitations of the school system and surrounded by other disheartened teachers, begins her own fight against a problematic history teacher, unaware that in so doing, she gradually becomes more and more like her staffroom colleagues.

Apart from directing the film, Sonja Tarokić also wrote the screenplay. The film is produced by Ankica Jurić Tilić, director of photography is Danko Vučinović, while Borna Buljević edited the film. Production design was done by Tajana Čanić Stanković, Katarina Pilić is credited with costume design, while Sanja Hrstić Kuterovac created the make-up. The film’s cast is headed up by Marina Redžepović, Stojan Matavulj, Nives Ivanković, Maja Posavec, Sandra Lončarić, Daria Lorenci Flatz and many others. 

The film is a Kinorama production, with KinoElektron from France as associate producer, while the film received support from the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, the MEDIA sub-programme of the Creative Europe, RE-ACT fund, Croatian Radiotelevision and TFL. 

The Dawn is scheduled to appear in the Horizons section – dedicated to the most significant titles of the past year. Dalibor Matanić’s feature is the second instalment in his ‘The Sun Trilogy’, comprising The High Sun, The Dawn and Sunset. In The Dawn Matanić continues to juxtapose the most noble and the basest of human impulses. Starring in the film is Krešimir Mikić as Matija, while his wife Ika is played by Tihana Lazović. 

The film is a Kinorama, Ascent Film and RAI Cinema production, with Ankica Jurić Tilić as producer and Andrea Paris, Matteo Rovere and Ines Vasiljević acting as co-producers. Director of photography is Marko Brdar, Tomislav Pavlic is credited with editing, while the music was composed by Alen Sinkauz and Nenad Sinkauz. 

The film was created with the support of the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, Mibact, RAI Cinema, Eurimages, Croatian Radiotelevision, the Friuli Venezia Giulia Film Commission and Regione Lazio.   

The East of the West competition programme will showcase minority Croatian co-production After the Winter – a debut fiction feature directed by Ivan Bakrač, with Croatian co-producer Damir Terešak (Maxima Film). The Montenegro-Serbian-Croatian co-production is a nostalgic and humorous homage to friendship and youth, which also received support from the Croatian Audiovisual Centre.

Icelandic-Croatian fiction short All Dogs Die directed by Ninna Pálmadóttir has been included in the EFP programme – Future Frames. It is a story about aging farmer Gunnar and his estranged granddaughter Anna who struggle to communicate as they try to decide what to do with the family dog whose health is failing. Over a summer weekend they face secrets from the past and issues of mortality.    

The film is as Streetlight Raven (Iceland) and Castor Multimedia (Croatia) production, with producers Ninna Pálmadóttir, Shao Min Chew Chia and Oddur Elíasson, and Matej Merlić as co-producer. Editing was done by Ivor Šonje, with Ninna Pálmadóttir and Jason Brownrigg as directors of photography and Tihomir Vrbanec as sound designer. 

All Dogs Die is screening alongside nine other short titles directed by some of the most promising European film students and directing graduates. The entire list of films in the selection is available on this link. 

The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival is one of the longest-running and most prestigious European film festivals annually screening around 200 cinematic titles. This year’s edition will be held on-site, 20th – 28th August.

More information about the festival may be found on the Karlovy Vary IFF official website.