New Croatian Films @ Silver Lake Film Festival in Hollywood

Dear Friends:

For the first time Croatian cinema, will be presented as a curated
program and part of another festival. All films will be screened at
the Arc Light theatres during the Silver Lake Film Festival in
Hollywood. Please check www.silverlakefilmfestival.org  for more details.
Tickets go on sale Monday March 20.

NEW CROATIAN FILM PROGRAM

Curator: Ziggy Mrkich

Presented by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia &
The Consulate General of the Republic of Croatia, Los Angeles

We are pleased to present New Croatian Film at the Silver Lake Film
Festival, a selection of six recent award-winning films (all with
English subtitles) by filmmakers of various generations, styles and
motivations. Deeply rooted in its national literature, Croatian films
are an integral part of the Central European style and artistic
expression, in which life, and primarily family life, is portrayed
realistically without sugar-coating, sky-high budgets, and forced
action.


WHAT IVA RECORDED ON OCTOBER 21, 2003/Sto je Iva Snimila 21, Listopada
2003 (US Premiere)
Fri., March 24, 9:30 pm
(Croatia, 2005, 92mins.)
Director: Tomislav Radic; Screenwrwiters: Ognjen Svilicic, Tomislav
Radic

Proclaimed by the Croatian Film Critics Association as the Best Croatian
Film of 2005, a teenaged girl receives a digital video camera for her
14th birthday and decides to film her birthday party, while her
stepfather is using the party as an opportunity to negotiate with a
possible new business partner. Events begin to spin wildly out of
control, as her family and guest begin drinking and arguing, while the
camera complacently records their antics.


SORRY FOR KUNG FU/ Oprosti za King Fu (Los Angeles Premiere)
Sun., March 26, 9:30 pm
(Croatia, 2004, 71mins.)
Director: Ognjen Svilicic; Screenwriter: Ognjen Svilicic; Producer:
Vesna Mort

Winner of the Grand Prix at the Warsaw International Film Festival, this
comedy examines the cultural divide: Returning to Croatia after a long
absence in Germany unmarried and pregnant Mirjana must face her
traditional family and the rumors surrounding her circumstances.
Circumstances get very complicated when Mirjana gives a birth to a boy
with Asian features.


WHAT IS A MAN WITHOUT A MOUSTACHE?/Sto je Muskarac bez Brkova
(U.S. Premiere)
Wed., March 29, 8:15 pm
(Croatia, 2005, 109 mins.)
Director: Hrvoje Hribar; Screenwriters: Renato Baretic, Hrvoje Hribar;
Producers: Hrvoje Hribar, Mirko Galic

An international hit and winner of the Audience Award at the 2005 Zagreb
Film Festival. A romantic comedy about a young widow, an aging
immigrant who has returned home from Germany, and a priest from a
bankrupt parish with whom she falls in love, all of whom are struggling
to come to terms with the post-war environment, complete with its
prejudices and illusions.

LONG DARK NIGHT/Duga Mracna Noc
Sun., March 26, 1:30 pm, reception to follow with Goran Visnjic
(Croatia, 2004, 195 mins.)
Director/Screenwriter: Antun Vrdoljak Producers: Antun Vrdoljak, Goran
Visnjic, Jadran Film, Mirko Gali

Croatia's official submission for the 2005 Academy Awards for Best
Foreign-Language Film, LONG DARK NIGHT is an emotional portrait of an
entire country caught in the devastation of WWII, and the consequences
brought onto one small village of Croatians of German ethnic background
during the 1940's – 1950's. Iva (Goran Visnjic), a college student
devoted to his family and friends, finds himself forced to fight with
the communist partisans when war erupts and his best friend, Mata, ends
up fighting on the opposite side with the Nazi-allied Ustasha. The path
of these two former friends –
both troubled by their respective choices – mirrors the complex and
difficult transformation of Croatia during that time.


A WONDERFUL NIGHT IN SPLIT/Ta Divna Splitska Noc
Mon., March 27, 7:45 pm
(Croatia, 2004, 100mins.)
Director/Screenwriter: Arsen-Anton Ostojic; Producer: Jozo Patljak

Croatia's official submission for the 2006 Academy Awards for Best
Foreign-Language Film. It's New Year's Eve on the narrow cobblestoned
streets of the ancient port town of Split on Croatia's Adriatic Coast
and everyone's up for a celebration. Stylishly shot in black and white
and constructed around three very human stories, Ostojic's debut feature
follows a smalltime drug dealer involved with a war widow and her son, a
young female junkie in crisis mode and a depressed American sailor, and
a teenage couple. Shot entirely in the hauntingly beautiful Ghetto of
Split, these three love stories unfold, and each character will have
irreversibly changed hir or her life by the stroke of midnight.


WITNESSES/Svjedoci
Thu., March 30, 5:45 pm
(Croatia, 2003, 90mins.)
Director/Screenwriter: Vinko Bresan; Producer: Ivan Maloca

Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the Medfilm Festival Roma, Peace
and Ecumenical Film Award at the Berlin Film Festival and many other
prices at the festivals around the world. In a small Croatian town
defending itself against the Serb army, this story unfolds from a
number of different view points.
A grieving wife and mother mourns the death of her husband, while her
young son murders a Serbian man in his home. The woman's other son
suffers from a war wound, while his girlfriend conducts an
investigation into the Serbian man's death. Bresan's political drama
explores ethnic hatred and moral ambiguity against the backdrop of war.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ziggy Mrkich
Dubrovnik International Film Festival
www.DUBROVNIKfilmfestival.com
May 31, - June 4, 2006
Croatia