Josip Lukić’s fiction short White Christmas screens in the Meteors competition programme, devoted to ‘radical arthouse documentaries, hybrid genres and documentary-fictional forms.’ White Christmas, an Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb production, portrays a city park as an ideal place to relax. Besides directing the film, Josip Lukić also penned the screenplay. Marinko Marinkić created the cinematography, while Elena Radošević edited the film. Nina Džidić-Uzelac created the sound design, Martina Marasović was the production designer, while costume design was done by Paula Čule. The film’s cast is made up of Josip Lukić, Paško Vukasović, Damir Radić and Ante Mitrović, while Aleksandra Giljević is the film’s producer. White Christmas was created with support from the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, whereas the screening at Beldocs will be its world premiere.

In addition, Josip Lukić’s previous film, the mid-length documentary, The Rex Will Sail In, has just won the Onion Seed Award for best film in the student film competition at the Makedox documentary festival recently held in North Macedonia. 

The appearance in the Beldocs Special Screenings section will mark the Serbian premiere of Nikolina Barić’s mid-length documentary Doctor, I'm Going to My Grave, which was developed at the Beldocs in Progress development programme last year. The director follows her mother’s small GP practice and her struggle with the failing Croatian health system. As the patient figures rise and the number of available doctors dwindles, everybody approaches their breaking point. The film’s world premiere is scheduled for 27th August, at the Liburnia Film Festival, while the screening at Beldocs will be an international premiere.

Nikolina Barić directed, shot, edited and produced the film for which she also wrote the screenplay. Sound design was done by Julij Zornik, while the film was created with support from the Croatian Audiovisual Centre and the Croatian Film Directors’ Guild.  

This year’s 13th Beldocs opens on 3rd Sept, with the screening of Croatian minority co-production Speak So I Can See You held at the amphitheatre in front of the Museum of Yugoslavia. The film’s director is Marija Stojnić (with Vanja Jambrović and Tibor Keser of Restart as Croatian co-producers). The film, which premiered at last year’s International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam – IDFA, screens in the Serbian Competition programme and this will be its national premiere.

Additionally, the industry section of the festival includes the documentary development programme, Beldocs in Progress, which will present Funk Yu, a feature documentary-animated film directed by Franko Dujmić, which is a Wolfgang & Dolly production, co-produced by Astral Film and Nana 143. The producer of this film in development is Tamara Babun. The film was created with support from the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, the City of Rijeka, the City of Dubrovnik and RE-ACT. It is a story about Franko who wants to make a film about Yugoslav funk and his obsession with vinyl records. In order to complete the film, he must track down the single “Ulica Jorgovana”/ “Lilac Street” so he puts together a film crew and sets out on a quest. He might not find the record, but he will definitely find his tribe.

Beldocs has received the support from EU’s MEDIA Sub-programme of Creative Europe for four consecutive years and its rich programme will include more than 135 documentary and VR/AR films. The programme is held at seven venues around Belgrade, in line with epidemiological measures. During the festival, the films will also be available online, via the Cinesquare platform. 

For more details, visit Beldocs festival’s official website. 

Cover photographs: Beldocs International Documentary Film Festival visuals; scenes from White Christmas; Doctor, I'm Going to My Grave