"Cowboys" by Tomislav Mršić

2013, 105'
genre: comedy, drama
original title: Kauboji
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In an ordinary small town, a peculiar theatre company, an assembly of antiheroes, losers, drifting aimlessly and seemingly lost in space and time, is about to put up a play inspired by classic Hollywood Westerns. Guided by a disillusioned director, they’ll be forced to fight their demons and overcome prejudices about each other.

As they embrace the formulas of the Western genre – the fight between good and evil and civilization taming the wilderness – the actors develop unexpected bonds of friendship and begin to experience the play as a metaphor for their own destinies. Not just a play anymore, suddenly it becomes an opportunity of a lifetime to all of them.

"Halima's Path" by Arsen A. Ostojić

2012, 93'
genre: drama
original title: Halimin put
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This is a tragic but inspiring story of a grieving, but strong-willed Muslim woman Halima who tries, without success, to find the remains of her son who was killed in the Bosnian War and buried in one of the many mass graves. She realizes that she must track down her estranged niece, who we find carries a mysterious connection to him. After finding her, Halima discovers a horrifying fact from her worst nightmares. With this discovery, the spiral of tragic events from the past would continue in the present, disrupting once again the troubled lives of the characters.

"The Mysterious Boy" by Dražen Žarković

2013, 88'
genre: adventure, mystery, children's & family film
original title: Zagonetni dječak
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This is a second film in the hit series of stories about a clever 14-year-old boy Koko and his band of friends who solve one mystery after another. The new adventure is about to set in when a strange behaving student comes to their school. His well-kept secret will start to unravel as Koko, Tomo and their classmate Marijana try to find out who he really is. But are they up to the task this time or is the answer to this riddle more frightening than they could handle?

"Vis-À-Vis" by Nevio Marasović

2013, 80'
genre: drama
original title: Vis-À-Vis
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A director is developing a new film, a story about an estranged father-son relationship. He decides to invite the actor playing the son to join him on a remote island in southern Adriatic to work on the script. As the winter slowly grasps the island in isolation, the two of them unexpectedly face their own frustrations and fears which will intertwine with the film’s plot in a most peculiar way.

"Family Meals" by Dana Budisavljević

2012, 50'
genre: documentary
original title: Nije ti život pjesma Havaja
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Five years after they last gathered, a birthday celebration brings together an estranged Croatian middle-class family. Over a series of breakfasts and lunches, long-buried family secrets rise to the surface as they try to talk about the things that really matter to them. Over the course of the film, the family tackles their feelings about being raised as hippies, homosexuality, illness, war, cooking, and the mysterious Grandmother Poison. Budisavljević’s film delivers precise storytelling, rich in twists and turns, to paint a heartfelt portrait of a family facing the challenges of turbulent times, spiced with love, tears and a glass of wine.

9 Selected Croatian Shorts

This selection offers selection of 9 shorts of all genres: animation, documentary, fiction and avant-garde, many of which were selected for screening and competing on prestigious international festivals, such as Karlovy Vary, Oberhausen, Vision du réel in Nyon and many more.

• Amnesiac on the Beach by Dalibor Barić (24', 2013, animated/experimental)
• Autofocus by Boris Poljak (26', 2013, documentary)
• Bla by Martina Meštrović (8', 2013, animated)
• Little Darling by Igor Mirković (15', 2013, fiction)
• Prettyboy by Saša Ban (15', 2013, fiction)
• The Tiniest by Tomislav Šoban (15', 2013, animated/experimental)
• The Verdict by Đuro Gavran (11', 2013, documentary)
• Thresholds by Dijana Mlađenović (13', 2013, fiction)
• Zovko Teleport by Predrag Ličina (17', 2013, fiction)