The Buyens-Chagoll jury awards recognition to films with a humanist character and focus on values that give meaning to the future of humanity.

The three-member jury awarded Srbenka Special Mention stating that it is a film where ‘the past faces the future in a space that meshes the power of film and theatre, with the aim of showing the time necessary to heal when a war that has ended, doesn’t stop.’

The documentary film Srbenka chronicles the preparations and rehearsals for the play Aleksandar Zec by Oliver Frljić, and produced by the HKD Theatre in Rijeka. Rehearsals soon turn into collective psychotherapy sessions for all involved, while to twelve year-old Nina it seems that the war is not over. The film explores themes of nationalism and xenophobia, observing the influence Croatian society and public discourse has, primarily, on children of Serbian nationals, born in Croatia years after the Homeland War ended.

The film caught the eyes of the professional public in 2017, while it was still in development, when it won three awards (HBO Adria Award, CAT & Docs Award, and the Digital Cube Award) in the Docu Rough Cut Boutique at the Sarajevo Film Festival.

The film is produced by Restart, and received support from the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, the cities of Rijeka and Zagreb, as well from Creative Europe – Subprogramme MEDIA.

A full list of winners is available at this link.

Cover photos: scenes from Srbenka