Croatian documentary titles at 28th Astra Film Festival in Romania
Three Croatian documentary films, one of which is a minority Croatian co-production, will screen in the competition programme reserved for films from Eastern and Central Europe of the 28th Astra Film Festival, taking place 5th – 12th Sept, in the Romanian city of Sibiu, as well as online. The minority co-production is set to have its world premiere at Astra Film Festival.
Documentary feature Nun of Your Business directed by Ivana Marinić Kragić is part of the Central & Eastern Europe Competition at the 28th edition of Astra Film Festival, the biggest documentary film event in Romania. The title recently won an award at the European Film Festival Palić, after having its world premiere at last year’s ZagrebDox, where it won the Audience Award.
Next to Nun of Your Business, the same programme at Astra Film Festival will screen Landscape Zero directed by Bruno Pavić, which premiered at the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival in late 2020. It recently won two awards at the Liburnia Film Festival – for Best Cinematography (Andrea Kaštelan) and Best Sound Design (Vjeran Šalamon).
Minority Croatian co-production Where the World Ends, by Belarusian director Anna Savchenko will also appear in the Central & Eastern Europe selection, which will mark its world premiere. The premiere screening is on the programme on Monday, 6th September.
Where the World Ends depicts life on the border between Lithuania and Belarus. An hour’s drive from Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, everyone must pass a strict border control as they leave the “free west” and enter Belarus, “the last dictatorship in Europe.” What was once a soft border between two Soviet Republics, has become one of the forgotten fringes of Europe, the Schengen border dividing communities, families and lives. Passing this border is an arduous and almost absurd process, however, there are people who face it on a daily basis. Simple daily routines of seeing family and friends, going to church or visiting the cemetery are disrupted by complicated processes that involve precise crossing schedules, obtaining visas and other complex bureaucratic procedures.
The film that is part of a six-episode documentary series, Borderline, created by Frederik Nicolai, has received support from the MEDIA sub-programme for TV programming, and from the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, for documentary TV series development and minority co-production.
The series is produced by Frederik Nicolai and Eric Goossens (Off World, Belgium), Ljubo Zdjelarević (Kinoteka, Croatia), Karl-Emil Rikardsen (Relation 04 Media, Norway) and Lukas Trimonis (Inscript, Lithuania).
The Astra Film Festival official competition this year features 43 titles from all over the world. Besides cinemas and open-air screenings, the audience will also be able to see the films from the main programme online.
More information about Astra Film Festival is available on the festival’s official website.
Cover photographs: Astra Film Festival visuals; scenes from films Nun of Your Business; Landscape Zero; Where the World Ends