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Croatian director Čejen Černić Čanak’s Sandbag Dam has sold to key territories following its world premiere this month in the Berlinale’s Generation 14plus competition for Italy’s Open Reel.

Dark Star Pictures has acquired rights for North American, while Salzgeber has bought the film for Germany and Austria, and Tongariro Releasing for Cee counties excluding Former Yugoslavia and the Baltic.

Lav Novosel and Andrija Žunac star in the story about a forbidden love set in flood-threatened village. It centres on a young man whose life is turned upside down when a friend returns for his father’s funeral and rekindles their forbidden romance.

In Croatian, the term for a sandbag dam is translatable as “rabbit dam”. What does the improvised construction for civil defence against flooding have to do with the adorable little long-eared rodents? It is still a mystery for your humble reviewer. However, in the Berlinale Generation title Sandbag Dam, co-written and directed by Čejen Černić Čanak, we are about to see a lot of both sandbags and rabbits, but neither of them are the focus of the film’s deeply felt story.

At its heart is Marko (budding actor Lav Novosel) who seems like a regular village teenager with his life and small pleasures planned for him. He is a local arm-wrestler coached by his father (Filip Šovagović) who he also helps at the mechanic garage. He is well-liked by his peers and has a stable relationship with local girl Petra (Franka Mikolaci in her first featue film role), who is.

Italy’s Open Reel has taken on international sales for Croatian director Čejen Černić Čanak’s Sandbag Dam,which hasbeen selected to play in the Generation 14plus strand of the Berlinale 2025.

A story about a forbidden love set in flood-threatened village, it centres on a young man whose life is turned upside down when a friend returns for his father’s funeral and rekindles their forbidden romance.

The feature is produced by Croatia’s Kinorama, Lithuania’s Tremora and Slovenia’s Perfo Production. Lav Novosel stars as Marko and Andrija Žunac as Slaven.

Černić Čanak made her feature debut with...

French fantasist Michel Gondry (The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Science of Sleep). will return to Berlin with his latest animated feature, Maya, donne-moi un titre (Maya, Give Me a Title), screening in the Generation Kplus sidebar of the 2025 Berlin International Film Festival. Described by Gondry as a “stop-motion love letter to his daughter Maya” the film features the voices of Maya Gondry and French star Pierre Niney. It will have its international premiere in Berlin.

Berlin unveiled the first eight features and seven short films for its Generation Kplus and 14plus sections on Tuesday. They include 10 world premieres and range from minimalist chamber plays to opulent dance films. The festival will announce the full Generations lineups in early January. The 75th Berlin International Film Festival runs Feb. 13-23, 2025.

Here are the 2025 Generation titles unveiled so far:

A natureza das coisas invisíveis (The Nature of Invisible Things | Die...