The Valencia Mediterranean Film Festival official competition will screen director Sonja Tarokić’s feature debut The Staffroom. The film had its world premiere at the prestigious Karlovy Vary FF in late August, winning a Special Jury Mention and an Ecumenical Jury Commendation. The Staffroom will have its Croatian debut this November at the Zagreb Film Festival. The film is a Kinorama production (with Ankica Jurić Tilić as producer), and has received support from the Croatian Audiovisual Centre.

Alongside The Staffroom, the competition programme at Mostra de València will feature the minority Croatian co-production, Heavens Above, directed by Srđan Dragojević. The film had its world debut in the international competition at this year’s Locarno Film Festival, where it won the Junior Jury First Prize.

Heavens Above is a co-production between Serbia, Germany, North Macedonia, Croatia and Slovenia. The Croatian co-production partner is Studio Dim (co-producer is Darija Kulenović Gudan). The film stars three Croatian actors Goran Navojec, Ksenija Marinković and Bojan Navojec, and has been supported by the Croatian Audiovisual Centre.

The Valencia Mediterranean Film Festival competition includes 12 titles, while the festival is intended to promote the audiovisual production of the Mediterranean geographical and cultural area. The festival is held 15th – 24th October and this will be its 36th edition. More details about the festival and programming are available on this link. 

This year, the German International Festival for Documentary and Animated Film – DOK Leipzig is held 25th – 31st October, while its documentary feature competition will include the minority Croatian co-production, The Cars We Drove into Capitalism, directed by Bulgarian duo Georgi Bogdanov and Boris Missirkov. The screening at DOK Leipzig also marks the film’s world premiere. Croatian co-producer is Dana Budisavljević of Zagreb company Hulahop.  

The original score for the film was composed by Dalibor Grubačević, the film also features songs by Arsen Dedić and Boško Petrović, while Ivan Zelić is credited with sound design and mixing. The film received financial backing from the Croatian Audiovisual Centre.

The documentary feature competition showcases films from all corners of the world competing for an audience award, with a common denominator of “stirring emotions and taking a subjective look that may be surprising, warm and humorous.” 

The Cars We Drove into Capitalism is a compendium of stories about the most popular cars manufactured by the socialist car industry of the 60s, 70s and 80s, which were the symbols of technological progress in the East that vanished with the fall of the Berlin Wall – or did they?

The International Festival for Documentary and Animated Film DOK Leipzig was launched in 1955, which makes it the longest-running festival in the world devoted to documentary film. Since its founding, DOK Leipzig has been organizing various programmes devoted to short and feature documentary films of different genres, regional focus programmes, historical content sections and masterclass sessions, as well as numerous side events. More information is available at Dok Leipzig’s official website.

Cover photographs: scenes from The Staffroom, Heavens Above, The Cars We Drove into Capitalism