Danish Oscar winner Thomas Vinterberg and British director Peter Greenaway are the main stars of this year's edition of the recently concluded Calabria International Film Festival and are the winners of its special award, while the Montenegrin film "Obraz" by director Nikola Vukčević Festival winner and winner of the Best Feature Film Award - The Orizzonti Contest.
"Face" was presented in the main selection among 16 films from around the world, and a significant part of the selected films has already been presented at the most important festivals such as Venice (5 films), Toronto, Karlovy Vary, Raindens...
The festival was held from 4 to 14 September under the auspices of the Italian Film Institute, Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (CSC), with the support of the Italian Ministry of Culture and numerous partner institutions. In addition to screenings, this event is marked by numerous international guests and retrospectives, and the festival has so far hosted artists such as Oscar winners Pola Hagisa i Cube Gudinga Jr, the director Kristijana Mungiua, Alberta Fun, Matea Garnea...
"Italian festivals and critics have so far responded very positively to our 'Obraz', which makes us really happy," says the main producer Milorad Radenović, from Galileo production Montenegro.
"We are witnessing that with exclusive guests and carefully designed programs - the boundaries between large and small international festivals are increasingly blurred, precisely thanks to serious selections of an exclusive-small number of films. That is why every festival participation is actually a small victory, and this award in Italy even more so. We are especially pleased with the communication that our film achieves around the world. Looking at the festivals that await us after this one (USA, Italy, Morocco), we look forward to continuing our mission, because it represents significant recognition of our joint efforts and the entire Montenegrin cinema. We eagerly await the scheduling of our Montenegrin theatrical distribution."
The festival jury, which consisted of Giancarlo Zapoli, Isabella Lapalorcia i Hooray Siena Nezad, stated the reasons for the award: "For the intensity of the message it offers, which calls us to question our moral imperatives and to be responsible for our actions without hiding behind order, law, customary rights. For the example and important lesson of humanity provided by children, whose spontaneity disarms us precisely because it is deprived of the superstructure of adults, too often constrained by events and the judgments of their community. For the setting, costumes, atmosphere and for putting into play the emotional power of film, capable of telling incredible but true stories, returning to us images of places and cultures that a whole lifetime would not be enough to get to know and understand".
Director Nikola Vukčević expressed his gratitude upon receiving the award, saying: "On behalf of the entire crew of the film 'Obraz', I thank you for this honor and for the touching explanation of the award. Your words confirm the meaning of our work and give us additional strength to continue to explore and share stories that speak of humanity, community and universal values through film. I come from a war zone in the 1990s, a painful war that devastated the SFR Yugoslavia, and because of that, we deeply recognize the pain of today's wars. I believe that we all need stories about such 'superheroes' – people who try to overcome banal differences. Thank you for your award, at least in a small way, helping to promote humanity."
This is the 17th international festival screening for the film "Obraz", out of a total of 22 festivals where the film has been selected so far (so, five more international festivals await it in the next 45 days), including two international festivals of the world's "A" list (Cairo and Goa, India) and comes just a few days after "Obraz" triumphed with the main prize (Grand Prix) and the Best Director of Photography award at the Kazan International Film Festival. "It took us eight years to tell the story of a man who dared to resist the force of the stronger - and take a more difficult path: to protect a child of another religion and nation in his home, risking the lives of his own family, and thereby preserving not only that child, but also the image of his house. Believing that it is precious to tell this story, after eight persistent years, we recently had our own emotional moment at the national premiere, at the Festival in Herceg Novi," emphasized producer Radenović, on the occasion of the Montenegrin premiere of the film. "Obraz" is not just a story about one man, but about what obliges us all - to preserve humanity in difficult times, to protect the weaker and to bear witness that humanity is as great as heroism."
The film "Face" had its world premiere in November at the Cottbus Film Festival in Germany. It was then screened at the renowned Cairo International Film Festival, the oldest and most important festival in the Arab world and Africa, as well as at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa, one of the leading festivals on the Asian continent. In January of this year, it was selected for the Cinema of the World selection at the 23rd Dhaka International Film Festival, and shortly after at the 17th Jaipur International Film Festival, where it was selected as the director of photography among eighty feature films in all categories. Đorđe Stojiljković awarded with the award for best cinematography. At the Saraqusta International Film Festival in Zaragoza, in May, the film won two awards – for direction and screenplay. In Portugal, in July, the film was awarded two awards at the Avanca Film Festival: Special mention by the jury for the film as a whole and the award for Best Production Design (To Stanislav Nikičević), while just a few days later in Italy the film won the award for Best Photography (Imago Film Festival), and the Zoran Živković Plaque for Best Film at the recently concluded Herceg Novi Film Festival. From the end of August until today, the film has been at two different festivals in India and once in Russia, with confirmed selections at festivals in the USA, Italy, Iraq and Morocco ahead.
The cast consists of regional and international artists. The main character is played by Edon Rizvanolli from the Netherlands, while the division also includes Nikola Ristanovski (North Macedonia), Igor Benčina (Serbia), alban ukaj (BiH), as well as Salman Yusufi i Xejlan Terbunja (Kosovo). Actors come from Montenegro Aleksandar Radulovic, Branimir Popovic, Ana Vuckovic i Zef Bato Dedivanović, in his last film role. In child roles, he appears Elez Adžović, Vuk Bulajić, Merisa Adžović i Hana Pavlovic.
The inspiration for the film comes from the anthological short story "Face (The Legend of Nur Doka)" by academician Zuvdija HodžićThe script is signed by Ana Vujadinović (Montenegro) and Melina Pote, while director Nikola Vukčević was a collaborator on the script. The film's visual identity was shaped by director of photography Đorđe Stojiljković (Serbia), the set designer was the late Stanislav Nikičević (Montenegro), and was in charge of the costumes Lidija Jovanovic (Serbia). The music is by Dušan Maksimovski (Croatia/Montenegro) and sisters Mass i Milica Vujadinović (Montenegro). The editing was done by Olga Toni (Slovenia) and director Vukčević, while the visual effects were created by Đuro Mihaljević (Montenegro) and Đorđe Stojiljković (Serbia).
The executive producers are Milorad Radenović i Jelena Filipović. Appearing as co-producers are: Nevena Savić i Ivica Vidanović from Belgrade's "Cinnamon Films", Dario Domitrović from the Zagreb label "Embrio", while the associated producers are Christoph Thoke (Mogador Film, Germany) and Boris Raonic on behalf of RTVCG.
The project was realized with financial support through a competition by the Film Center of Montenegro, the Film Center of Serbia, the Croatian Audiovisual Center, the Ministry of Culture of Montenegro, RTVCG and CEKUM. At the co-production competition in Serbia in November 2020, ONRAZ took first place among about fifty submitted projects, which also secured support from Serbian public funds in the amount of about 60.000 euros.
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