“Mila Turajlić is internationally the most successful author of documentary films from the region and it is our great pleasure to co-produce her films, which often take long-forgotten materials lying neglected in some film archive as their starting point. In these films, the director always examines what these materials can tell us today and what significance they have for the contemporary social context. In this film, she focuses on the 1960s and the story of the Non-Aligned Movement, decolonization and the Algerian War of Independence, told through the story and the incredibly rich film archive of Stevan Labudović, Tito’s long-time  personal cinematographer”, said co-producers Vanja Jambrović and Tibor Keser from Restart, on the occasion of the world premiere of Non-Aligned: Scenes from the Labudović Reels.

The film, which will have its world premiere in the international competition programme at the 35th International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam – IDFA, is directed by Mila Turajlić, who also penned the screenplay, while the main producer is company Poppy Pictures from Serbia.

In addition to competing for the main festival award in the international competition, the film has also been nominated for the special Beeld & Geluid IDFA ReFrame Award, awarded by an international jury to titles from various sections of the festival.

Besides Croatian co-producers, the film’s creative team also includes Croatian members Barbara Matijević as script doctor and Dragan Đokić as animation artists. The film was also partly shot in Rijeka.

The international competition features 13 titles, with the full list of films available at this link. 

One of the jury member in the international competition programme is the director of the International Film Festival Rotterdam, Vanja Kaluđerčić from Pula.

The audience at this year’s IDFA will have a chance to see another Croatian minority co-production – The New Greatness Case, a documentary feature directed and written by Anna Shishova. The film’s co-producer is Siniša Juričić for Nukleus Film. The title will appear in the Best of Fests programme.

The film follows Anya (17), an ordinary teenager who dreamed about making life in Russia better. In March 2018 she was arrested and imprisoned on trumped-up charges of extremism. Three years later, her mother continues the desperate struggle to prove her daughter’s innocence.

To date, the film has screened at festivals in New York (Human Rights Watch Film Festival), Great Britain (Sheffield DocFest), Norway (Bergen International Film Festival), Switzerland (Zurich Film Festival), Kosovo (DokuFest Prizren), winning the best documentary film award at the Rab Film Festival in Croatia. In addition, in development phase, The New Greatness Case already screened at IDFA last year, as part of the IDFA Forum, where it won the award for best rough cut.

In late October, The New Greatness Case was picked up by the ARTE channel, making it available to audiences throughout Europe.

Both of these films have been created with support of the Croatian Audiovisual Centre.

IDFA, the world’s largest documentary film festival, this year runs 9th – 20th November. It annually screens over 300 titles that address life around the world. Find more details about IDFA on the festival’s official website.