The festival, held 26th August – 2nd September, is expected to present over 60 exclusive premieres of shows from across the world, while The Last Socialist Artefact will be exhibited on 31st August, in the Panorama International competition programme, alongside 14 other shows from around the globe. 

“Amidst the hyper-production of series everywhere in the world, the selection of ‘The Last Socialist Artefact’ for the prestigious Series Mania festival and market is a very nice recognition. The Series Mania market is where it all started for the ‘Artefact’, and we were the first Croatian project to be presented there. I am exceptionally pleased that we will have our world premiere here as well,” said producer Ankica Jurić Tilić responding to the excellent news for Croatian TV production.

The series is based on the novel No-Signal Area written by Robert Perišić (Croatian publisher is Sandorf, 2015), while the writers on the show are Hana Jušić, Milan F. Živković and Jelena Paljan. It was shot in October and November of 2020 in Croatia, and during 2021 in Finland and Tunisia. Croatian viewers will be able to catch it on Croatian Radiotelevision, as part of 2021/22 regular autumn programming. 

“‘The Last Socialist Artefact’ is a tribute to the nowadays increasingly underappreciated working class, especially the ‘little people’ grappling with their own dilemmas and emotions. We are truly happy that the series in which we invested a lot of passion and effort is having such a strong foray into the world,” says the show’s director Dalibor Matanić.  

The series follows two guys from Zagreb who arrive in a rundown little town, planning to bring back to life a long-abandoned factory in order to manufacture a turbine no longer in use for a mysterious client. The six-part series centres on crafty businessman Oleg (Rene Bitorajec), his introverted cousin Nikola (Krešimir Mikić), Šeila (Jovana Stojiljković), a young art curator returning to her home town, former union leader Janda (Izudin Bajrović), Branoš (Goran Bogdan), a young worker with all the attributes of a new leader, and Lipša (Tihana Lazović), a laidback and clever waitress who always lands on her feet. The show also features appearances by Slavko Štimac, Lana Barić, Milena Zupančič, Stipe Radoja, Anđela Ramljak, Marko Mandić, Goran Marković and many others.

The director of photography on the project is Marko Brdar, Tomislav Pavlic is in charge of editing, Jura Ferina and Pavao Miholjević composed the music, Julij Zornik is the sound editor, while Ivo Knezović created the production design and Selena Orb the costume design.

The series is a Kinorama from Zagreb production, co-produced by Slovenian company Perfo, Serbian Sense Production and Finnish Citizen Jane. The majority of the funding came from the Croatian Radiotelevision and Creative Europe, while screening rights were secured in advance by Slovenian television Pro Plus and Serbian RTS. During development, the project was supported by Creative Europe and the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, which also supported it through its filming incentives scheme, while in development the project was presented at international markets CineLink Drama at Sarajevo and precisely at Series Mania, held in Paris that year.     

Cover photographs: scenes from series The Last Socialist Artefact