At the premiere, Ogresta was joined by cast members Ksenija Marinković, Lazar Ristovski and Tihana Lazović, cinematographer Branko Linta, editor Tomislav Pavlic, executive producer Maja Vukić, and the head of the Croatian Audiovisual Centre Hrvoje Hribar. The public’s reaction best describes the long conversation which followed the screening, and the cast and crew were showered with both questions and compliments.

‘Thank you for letting us present our film to you at such an important and grand festival. This is my seventh film, but my first co-production with two countries; Croatia and Serbia. I’m sure you all know that those two countries were once at war, and my film discusses the problems that both sides face. ‘On the Other Side’ of the wall, street or mind. This is a film that is viewed with the heart and that is how it should be experienced. If we were to only rationalize, art would not exist,’ said Ogresta after the screening in Berlin.

‘There have been great expectations of this project from the day that the artistic advisors presented it to the Croatian Audiovisual Centre’s committee. The first time I saw it was near the end of the editing process, and I knew then that our film would take us to, let’s say, Berlin. It was nice to see the public’s enthusiasm and emotional response. The film’s emotions cross borders, this film is a wonderful journey,’ Hrvoje Hribar, of the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, concluded.

On the Other Side is a tense psychological thriller based on the screenplay written by Mate Matišić and Zrinko Ogresta. It is the story of a nurse named Vesna, who moved to Zagreb with her children twenty years ago, escaping events that nearly destroyed them. But after an unexpected phone call, a secret Vesna had been hiding all those years surfaces. The film stars Ksenija Marinković and Lazar Ristovski. The cast also includes Tihana Lazović, Robert Budak, Toni Šestan, Tena Jeić Gajski, Vinko Kraljević, Marija Tadić, Alen Liverić and others.

The crew is made up of cinematographer Branko Linta, editor Tomislav Pavlic, executive producer Maja Vukić, art director Tanja Lacko, costume designer Katarina Zaninović, make-up artist Slavica Šnur, and sound engineers Mladen Pervan, Martin Semenčič and Ivan Zelić. Ivan Maloča is the film’s producer, while Zagreb’s Interfilm handled production in co-production with Belgrade’s Zillion Film and Croatian Radio Television. On the Other Side is co-financed through subsidies provided by the Croatian Audiovisual Centre and Serbian Film Centre.

The Berlin International Film Festival draws nearly half a million visitors each year. The Berlinale’s Panorama programme is aimed towards new films by established directors, and debut films and new discoveries, while at the heart of the programme are films with strong authorial vision. Films in the Panorama programme compete for eight prestigious awards, including the most significant awards, the Panorama Audience Award – voted upon by more than twenty thousand festival visitors.

The film is set to premiere in Croatia on March 6th in Cinema Karaman in Split, as a part of Women’s Day Weekend, and two days later at Cinema Europa in Zagreb.

High resolution photographs from the premiere are available at this link. (*Photo credits: Claudia Klein)

Cover photos: the film’s team; the team and HAVC director Hrvoje Hribar; Tihana Lazović, Zrinko Ogresta, Ksenija Marinković, Lazar Ristovski and Wieland Speck; Lazar Ristovski and Ksenija Marinković; Ksenija Marinković, Zrinko Ogresta and Tihana Lazović