Ji.hlava 2023: Elvis Lenić’s Ship international premiere; Vlad Petri’s Between Revolutions in competition
The documentary Ship directed by Elvis Lenić, a Kinematograf production (producer Dijana Cetina Mlađenović), has been selected for the Opus Bonum competition section of the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival. Romanian-Croatian-Iranian-Qatari hybrid documentary Between Revolutions directed by Vlad Petri (Croatian co-producer Oliver Sertić, Restart) will appear in the Testimonies competition. The festival in the Czech city of Jihlava runs 24th – 29th October.
The feature-length documentary Ship centres on the testimonies of former workers of Uljanik, a shipyard in Pula that became a graveyard of abandoned workshops, steel wreckage and immovable cranes, after being in operation for more than 160 years and engendering countless magnificent ships.
The documentary is directed, filmed and written by Elvis Lenić, and produced by Dijana Cetina Mlađenović (Kinematograf). The film’s editor is Matija Debeljuh, with Bojan Kondres as the sound designer.
Ship had its world premiere at this year’s 70th Pula Film Festival, while the screening at Ji.hlava, Czech Republic, will mark its international premiere. The film will appear alongside 16 other titles in the Opus Bonum competition section, boasting “the world’s best documentaries”, according to the programme description.
In addition to the documentary Ship, Ji.hlava will also present Croatian minority co-production Between Revolutions, directed by Vlad Petri, screening in the Testimonies competition programme, dedicated to powerful documentaries that “tackle important social, economic, ecological and political phenomena”. The film is a Romanian-Croatian-Iranian-Qatari production, Croatian co-producer being Oliver Sertić from Restart. Between Revolutions won the FIPRESCI Award for Best Film in the FORUM programme at this year’s Berlinale, and it is currently screening in Luxembourg at the Central and Eastern European Film Festival – CinEast.
The International Documentary Film Festival in Jihlava organises and runs the Docu Talents from the East programme in cooperation with the Sarajevo Film Festival. Selected projects were presented this past summer at the festival in Sarajevo, as part of the CineLink Industry Days platform, including one Croatian documentary Dreaming of El Dorado by director Alan Stanković and producer Boris Veličan (production company Studio 9).
The 27th Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival, the biggest documentary festival in Central and Eastern Europe, will be held 24th – 29th October in the Czech city of Jihlava. The festival will showcase over 350 titles in competition and non-competing programmes, of which 115 titles will have their world, 22 international and 17 European premieres. The festival is part of the DOC Alliance – a partnership among seven European documentary film festivals, aimed at strengthening independent and creative documentary filmmaking in Europe. Find out more about Ji.hlava IDFF on its official website.
Cover photographs: scenes from Ship; Between Revolutions