Bridge at the End of the World, directed by Branko Ištvančić and the minority Croatian co-production TIR, by Italian director Alberto Fasulo, will be presented to the Montreal audience in the non-competition programme Focus on World Cinema.

Bridge at the End of the World is based on a script written by Josip Mlakić and directed by Branko Ištvančić. It focuses on unfortunate human destinies during the war in Croatia. In an atmosphere of fear, return of Serbian refugees to their homes now inhabited by Croats refuged from Bosnia, an old man disappears and the investigation of a police officer also living in a Serbian home becomes more and more personal. The director of photography was Branko Cahun, editor Veljko Segarić, and the cast includes Aleksandar Bogdanović, Sanja Radišić, Boro Stjepanović, Slaven Knezović, Jelena Perčin and others. The film premiered in the national competition of the recently finished 61st Pula Film Festival. The producer is Artizana film and the film was co-funded by the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia, and the Foundation for Cinema of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Croatian minority co-production TIR is a feature documentary-fiction hybrid following 50-year-old Branko, a teacher from Rijeka, who out of difficult living conditions decides to get a job as a truck driver with an Italian transport company. The director was Alberto Fasulo, the Italian co-producer Nefertiti Film, and the Croatian Focus Media. The film was co-funded by the Croatian Audiovisual Centre. At the Rome International Film Festival 2014 it won the main award, the Golden Marcus Aurelius in international competition, as well as the best editing award.

The short fiction film selection in the Focus on World Cinema programme includes The Chicken by Una Gunjak, a story about a girl who gets a chicken as a present from her father in wartime Sarajevo. The film premiered at the 53rd Critics’ Week in Cannes, and the Palm Springs International Short Film Festival named it the best film in the 15-minute category.

The producers are the German company Zak Film Productions and Croatian Nukleus film, with the support of the Croatian Audiovisual Centre.

More information about the films and the entire programme of the 38th festival edition is available on the official website.

Title photos: Bridge at the End of the World; TIR; The Chicken