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The CineLink Work in Progress section at Sarajevo Film Festival, which showcases feature film projects from Southeast Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, has selected eight fiction and three documentary projects.

Among the subjects of the projects are a teen threesome in North Macedonia that leads to a troublesome pregnancy, a shipwreck hiding a sacred amulet on the Atlantic coast of the Sahara, a crumbling blue bus in 1950s Turkey, and mysterious aunt in rural Serbia.

The projects will be presented to international film funders, sales agents, distributors, broadcasters and festival programmers with the aim of helping them be completed and boost their distribution chances.

The films “explore the complexities of human nature and the fragility of social consensus, and the tensions between collective expectations and personal anxieties,” the festival said. “What unites these films is a shared sensitivity to the nuances of human relationships, between generations, individuals, and communities.

Kosara Mitic’s teenage drama 17 is among the 11 features participating in the work-in-progress strand of CineLink Industry Days (August 16-21), the industry platform of Sarajevo Film Festival.

Macedonian director Mitic’s debut feature will follow a 17-year-old girl who gets pregnant after a threesome with her classmates; and her attempts to hide the pregnancy become more difficult during a graduation excursion.

Scroll down for the full list of titles

The film is produced by Tomi Salkovski for North Macedonia’s Black Cat Production, in co-production with Serbia’s Art&Popcorn and Slovenia’s December.

The Sarajevo selection includes eight fiction features,...

The 30th Sarajevo Film Festival in Bosnia and Herzegovina will open on Aug. 16 with the world premiere of “My Late Summer” by local filmmaker Danis Tanović, who won an Oscar with “No Man’s Land.”

The comedy-drama centers on a young woman, Maja, who travels to a remote island to sort out her family’s inheritance. In a whirlwind of emotions and surprising situations, she faces questions from her past. The search for inheritance becomes a search for her own identity, but also for forgiveness.

The film will be screened simultaneously in Sarajevo at the National Theatre, at the Coca-Cola Open Air Cinema, at the Stari Grad open air cinema and at the Centar Safet Zajko open air cinema, and its premiere will also kick off the festival’s screenings in Mostar, at the Bh Telecom Open Air Cinema Mostar, and in Tuzla, at the Bingo Open Air Cinema Tuzla.

Tanović...

The world premiere of Danis Tanovic’s My Late Summer will open the 30th Sarajevo Film Festival on Friday, August 16.

Tanovic’s new film is a comedy-drama about a young woman who comes to a remote island to solve her family inheritance issues. The screening will play simultaneously in the National Theatre and three open-air cinemas in Sarajevo, as well as beginning the festival’s satellite screenings in the Bosnian towns of Mostar and Tuzla.

My Late Summer was produced by Croatia’s Propeler Film, co-produced by Romania’s Tangaj Production, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Obala Art Centar (the organisation...

World politics took center stage in the Czech spa town of Karlovy Vary on Sunday. Ukrainian filmmaker Oleh Sentsov world premiered his documentary Real from the trenches of the Ukraine War at the 58th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. But beforehand, he met with Czech president Petr Pavel who expressed the Czech Republic’s support for Ukraine against Russia’s invasion.

Sentsov, who is on leave from his work as a soldier in the war, had received a warm welcome and huge ovation during the fest’s opening ceremony on Friday evening. The Sunday premiere of Real at the Hotel Thermal in Karlovy Vary was packed. Among the audience members were Viggo Mortensen and his The Dead Don’t Hurt co-star Solly McLeod.

Before the world premiere, Sentsov arrived for his meeting with Pavel in a room at the Hotel Thermal in Karlovy Vary just after 5 p.m.

Ukrainian filmmaker Oleh Sentsov’s latest feature Real, his first since the 2021 Venice comp title Rhino, opens with a messy GoPro shot of Ukrainian soldiers taking cover in a shallow trench in the Donbas, the country’s front line in its defense against Vladimir Putin’s invasion of the country.

Across the next 100 minutes, the camera barely moves from this spot. We don’t see any warfare but we hear it. Soldiers are attacked and Russian bombs are launched. The immediate contemporary comparison, in terms of form, would be Jonathan Glazer’s unwavering Oscar-winner The Zone Of Interest. Unlike Glazer’s fiction movie, however, Real was captured unintentionally by Sentsov on his official military helmet camera. He found the footage months later on his laptop.

“I saw a big video file and I thought I should delete it because it was taking too much space on my laptop,” he told...

Ukrainian filmmaker Oleh Sentsov is sitting in a brightly lit apartment in Kyiv, wife Veronika by his side, hand cupping his right ear. “What? What? What?” he says, asking Variety to repeat the question. More than two years on the frontline of Ukraine’s war with Russia have provided Sentsov with few chances for levity, but he allows himself a mischievous grin. After suffering, by his count, “six contusions and two perforations” to his right ear drum, the director has lost a significant portion of his hearing. It may or may not return. Sentsov shrugs. Many of his Ukrainian comrades, he knows, have suffered far worse fates.

It’s a point driven home by the director’s latest film, “Real,” a documentary snapshot of the Ukraine war that world premieres with a special screening at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival. Described as an “accidental” film, the 88-minute feature is entirely...

20 Days in Mariupol, Mstyslav Chernov’s harrowing and Oscar-winning documentary about the siege of the Ukrainian port city in the first days of Russia’s full-scale invasion, brought home the devastation wrought by war on a civilian population. A new documentary, Real, premiering at the Karlovy Vary international Film Festival, shows the reality of the Ukraine war from the soldier’s perspective.

Real begins without explanation or warning. We are suddenly in a foxhole, hearing the frantic voice of a soldier over the radio in another trench, under attack from Russian forces and in desperate need of reinforcements. The voice on our end — that of Real director Oleh Sentsov, call sign “Grunt” — is trying to organize the evacuation of troops under fire and the resupply of his unit. Ammunition is running out, and the Russian forces — uniformly referred to over the radio as “f**kers” — are closing in.

The...

Exclusive: Ukrainian filmmaker Oleh Sentsov spent more than five years in prison in Russia for opposing its annexation of his native Crimea in 2014.

At this year’s Karlovy Vary Film Festival, the filmmaker debuts Real, a feature documentary he shot from the front lines of Ukraine’s defense against Putin’s invasion of the country.

The film will debut as a special screening at Karlovy Vary. The synopsis reads: During the first days of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, film director Oleh Sentsov, an army reservist since returning from his incarceration in Putin’s gulag, joined a unit of the Ukrainian Defence Forces. In his role as an army lieutenant, he took part in several intensive battles – and during one, his Bmp armored vehicle was destroyed by Russian artillery. In the aftermath, he became embedded in nearby trenches and tried to organize via radio the evacuation of part of his unit.

In her sophomore feature, contemporary fairytale “Rift in the Ice,” Serbian director Maja Miloš revisits the underbelly of Serbian society and explores women’s integrity and sexuality in the harsh reality of contemporary Serbia. The film is a co-production between Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, Netherlands and Montenegro, and features in the works-in-progress section of Cinelink, the Sarajevo Film Festival’s industry program. It is hoping to woo partners and funds for completion.

Miloš explains that “Rift in the Ice” is a Cinderella story set in Serbia in the period following the Balkans War, and posits the idea that when a young woman embraces her sexuality she becomes a kind of princess. “It is also a hero’s journey going from the lowest ranks of society to the highest.“

The ice in the title refers to the background of the protagonist, an ice skater. “I wanted her to be in sports...

Croatian event moved to November for the first time, excluded documentary programme to strengthen the industry section.

The 13th Zagreb Film Festival (Nov 14-22) saw Lászlo Nemes’ Cannes Grand Prix winner Son of Saul win the main prize, the Golden Pram for best feature film and a cash prize of €4,000.

The holocaust drama beat 12 other first or second films by their directors, including Icelandic duo Rams and Sparrows, indie hit Me Earl And The Dying Girl, Czech offerings Family Film and Home Care, and Venezuela’s Venice winner From Afar.

The jury, comprising directors Levan Koguashvili and Jessica Woodworth, and producer Christoph Thoke, said of the winner: ”It’s shattering. It’s a masterpiece. It’s unforgettable. A physical experience. An extraordinary film.”

Special mentions went to Tobias Lindholm’s A War, which world premiered at Venice, and Australia-Vanuatu co-production Tanna by Bentley Dean and Martin Butler, which won the audience prize in the Venice Critics’ Week.

Shorts...

I had planned to see Circles (Serbia, directed by Srdan Golubovic) because my visits over the past 2 years to Romania, Poland, Lithuania and Bosnia and Herzegovina (Sarajevo) have increased my interest in Central and Eastern Europe where the people are looking up (vs. in Western Europe where they are looking down). Now it has been submitted for the Academy Award Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film and so I reprint my interview here which I did during Sundance earlier this year.

Sarajevo itself is especially remarkable as the only place in Europe where there has been a war since I was born. From 1991 to 1999 Serbia was involved in the Yugoslav Wars - the war in Slovenia, the war in Croatia, the war in Bosnia and the war in Kosovo. During this period, Slobodan Milošević was the authoritarian leader of Serbia, which was in turn part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. This was was a war between people who spoke a common language but were split along religious lines, the Serbs being Eastern Orthodox and the Bosnians, Kosovians and Croations being Muslim.

The country known as Yugoslavia had been unified from 1918 to 1991-- first under a king as The Kingdom of Yugoslavia until 1941 and then as the Social Republic of Yugoslavia. Even as the Social Republic of Yugoslavia, it was a country more liberal then the other communist countries. It was a socialist republic open to west; its people could travel, the people had good jobs, it was more an example of socialism than of communism. Its geographical location was also at a true crossroad between east and west, formerly Ottomon and Muslim and at the same time very Eastern Orthodox and Catholic.

When the Ussr collapsed, Sarajevo, situated in the break-off nation Bosnia and Herzogovina was surrounded by Christian Serbs who bombarded the cities of the nation which they saw more as Muslim than as Christian in order to annex the land.

My dear Berlin friend, Geno Lechner from Berlin asked me to see it because she is in it. She plays the German wife of the protagonist. And my good friend Mickey Cottrell, of Inclusive PR is the publicist for Circles from the time it was in Sundance 2013's World Dramatic Competition and has also asked me to revise and repost what I wrote in Sundance.

So here it is:

Circles ripples out as a stone dropped in a placid lake, concentrically creating moral complexities for a group of people as their story strands emerge from one fateful moment.

Marco, a Serbian soldier on leave from the Serbo-Croatian War in 1993, returns to his Bosnian hometown. When three fellow soldiers accost Haris, a Muslim kiosk vendor, Marco intervenes, and it costs him his life.

Twelve years later, the war is over but the wounds remain open. Marco's father is rebuilding a church when the son of one of Marco's killers appears looking for work. Meanwhile, in Belgrade, Marco's friend Nabobs, a renowned surgeon, debates whether or not to operate on another of Marco's killers. And in Germany, Haris, now married with a family (Geno Lechner and her two daughters) strives to repay his debt to Marco's widow who arrives at his door seeking refuge.

John Nein, Sundance Senior Programmer says, "Srdan Golubovic's third feature employs a multifaceted, yet simple, structure that contemplates revenge, redemption, and reconciliation. Aware of how easily hatred and violence can create life-shattering ripples, he looks at the consequences of moral courage and asks whether a heroic act can generate ripples of another kind."

Circles was financed with funds from Serbia, Germany, France, Croatia, and Slovenia. Its international sales agent is Memento. Circles also screened in the Berlin Film Festival's Forum.

It is very important for the film’s director, Srdan Golubovic, that Circles receive wide distribution. It is based upon the true story of Srdjan Aleksic, a Serbian soldier who saved the life of his neighbor. When Golubovic read the story some years ago, he was against the war but on the sidelines watching, occasionally demonstrating against it, but not a part of it. He chose not to remake the story of the man then but to make it contemporary in order to close the book of his own private feelings about the war.

The man is universal in that he is saving a man, not "an enemy". The escaped man moved into a German world, which at the time looked very much like his own world, sparse, unattractively Soviet in style. However, he found his fortune there and created a life. The actor, Aleksandar Bercek, says that when he met the real Srdjan Aleksic, he said to him, "Now I am walking; it could have been different. I could have been lying down." You will see in a Google search that the memory of Srdjan is very much alive today. The real man's grave is visited yearly by the survivor he saved and by all the former Yugoslavians in the area of Serbia, Bosnia, Herzogovina, Croatia and Slovenia. He has received a posthumous medal of honor and has streets named after him in several cities.

This is one of the rare films which unites everybody; it is about forgiveness and reconciliation. And as such it deserves very wide distribution. And as a work of heroic art, it deserves to be seen by many people. We hope you will visit Memento during Berlin and place your orders. For those of you who are not distributors going to market to acquire films, we hope you will have a chance to see this film in your local theaters or homes.

Srdan Golubovic’s earlier film from 2007, The Trap, garnered great acclaim and was Serbia’s submission for an Academy Award nomination.

When director Srdan Golubovic and producer Jelena Mitrovic and I spoke during Sundance, they spoke of what a great surprise Sundance was to them. They found the people very warm. The audiences were totally open, very curious and emotionally connected. It is very rare for Srdan to find an audience that is not afraid to ask questions and eager to talk about the film. And, unlike at most film festivals, at Sundance, they saw the programmers every day and were always able to speak to them. As there were not too many films in competition — 12 in World Cinema section as opposed to 16 last year — the attention they received from the Sundance personnel and volunteers was very special.

Read the praise received by The Hollywood Reporter

Further information:

Serbian with English subtitles, 2012, 112 minutes, color, Serbia/Germany/France/Croatia/Slovenia, World Dramatic Competiton at Sundance, Forum at the Berlinale

Cast and Credits

Director: Srdan Golubovic

Screenwriters: Srdjan Koljevic, Melina Pota Koljevic

Producers: Jelena Mitrovic, Alexander Ris, Emilie Georges, Boris T. Matic, Danijel Hocevar

Cinematographer: Alexsander Ilic

Production Designer: Goran Joksimovic

Composer: Mario Schneider

Sound Designer: Julij Zornik

Costume Designer: Ljiljana Petrovic

Principal Cast: Aleksandar Bercek, Leon Lucev, Nebojsa Glogovac, Hristina Popovic, Geno Lechner, Nikola Rakocevic, Vuk Kostic...

Fitzgibbon, Sitaru, Vicari, Huddles, Runarsson and van Geffen will be at Les Arcs this December.

Ireland’s Ian Fitzgibbon, Romania’s Adrian Sitaru, Iceland’s Runar Runarsson (pictured), Italy’s Daniele Vicari and America’s John Huddles are among the directors who will be presenting their new projects at the Les Arcs Co-production village this year.

The event, which runs Dec 14-17 within France’s alpine, Sundance-style Les Arcs European Film Festival (Dec 14-21), unveiled the production line-up on Thursday as well as the productions that will be presented in the Works in Progress section on Dec 15.

This year’s co-pro selection mixes upcoming productions from established independent filmmakers with a slew of projects from feted shorts directors who are embarking on their first features.

“We pretty proud of this year’s line-up. There’s a lot of projects I would be seriously looking at if I were going to Les Arcs in a professional capacity rather...

Fitzgibbon, Sitaru, Vicari, Huddles, Runarsson and van Geffen will be at Les Arcs this December.

Ireland’s Ian Fitzgibbon, Romania’s Adrian Sitaru, Iceland’s Runar Runarsson (pictured), Italy’s Daniele Vicari and America’s John Huddles are among the directors who will be presenting their new projects at the Les Arcs Co-production village this year.

The event, which runs Dec 14-17 within France’s alpine, Sundance-style Les Arcs European Film Festival (Dec 14-21), unveiled the production line-up on Thursday as well as the productions that will be presented in the Works in Progress section on Dec 15.

This year’s co-pro selection mixes upcoming productions from established independent filmmakers with a slew of projects from feted shorts directors who are embarking on their first features.

“We pretty proud of this year’s line-up. There’s a lot of projects I would be seriously looking at if I were going to Les Arcs in a professional capacity rather...

Fitzgibbon, Sitaru, Vicari, Huddles, Runarsson and van Geffen will be at Les Arcs this December.

Ireland’s Ian Fitzgibbon, Romania’s Adrian Sitaru, Iceland’s Runar Runarsson (pictured), Italy’s Daniele Vicari and America’s John Huddles are among the directors who will be presenting their new projects at the Les Arcs Co-production village this year.

The event, which runs Dec 14-17 within France’s alpine, Sundance-style Les Arcs European Film Festival (Dec 14-21), unveiled the production line-up on Thursday as well as the productions that will be presented in the Works in Progress section on Dec 15.

This year’s co-pro selection mixes upcoming productions from established independent filmmakers with a slew of projects from feted shorts directors who are embarking on their first features.

“We pretty proud of this year’s line-up. There’s a lot of projects I would be seriously looking at if I were going to Les Arcs in a professional capacity rather...