On 14th and 15th March, director Ivan Ramljak’s documentary feature El Shatt – A Blueprint for Utopia will screen at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, in the Open Horizons programme. It had its national premiere at the Mediterranean film Festival Split, where it immediately scooped up the Audience Award and a jury Special Mention. Its international premiere took place in competition at DOK Leipzig. The film’s producer is Tibor Keser, alongside co-producer Sunčica Fradelić. El Shatt is a Kompot production, in co-production with the Cinema Club Split and Serbian company Horopter.

In addition, the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival will also showcase Frech film Cinéma Laika, directed by Croatian artists Veljko Vidak.

In Agora, the industry section of the festival, the project Dream Collector directed by Sonja Blagojević Đekić will be presented in the programme Docs in Progress. The project is produced by Serbian company KEVA, in co-production with Croatian house Wolfgang&Dolly (co-producers are Tamara Babun and Matija Drniković).

Thessaloniki Documentary Festival runs 7 – 17 March, offering the visitors a selection of 250 documentary films.

On the other hand, the 26th edition of the Ljubljana Documentary Film Festival kicks off on Wednesday, 13th March, which will present Elvis Lenić’s documentary feature Ship in the programme “Myths, Icons, Media”. In 2023, the film took home Best World Documentary Film, screening in competition at the 27th Ji.hlava Documentary Film Festival. Ship was produced by Dijana Cetina Mlađenović for company Kinematograf.

In addition, the Ljubljana audience will also get a chance to see two minority co-productions: Vlad Petri’s Between Revolutions (producer Oliver Sertić, Restart), and Non-Aligned: Sceens from the Labudović Reels directed by Mila Turajlić (producers Vanja Jambrović, Tibor Keser, Restart) in different programme sections of the festival.

Cover photograph: scenes from El Shatt – A Blueprint for Utopia (left); Ship (right)