Participants of the CineLink Producers’ Lab in Sarajevo present upcoming projects

Nineteen emerging producers from 12 countries in South East Europe and the wider Black Sea region have been selected to take part in the first edition of the CineLink Producers’ Lab, a new networking and training program launched by the Sarajevo Industry Branch Film Festival.

Held from August 12-15 as part of the CineLink Industry Days program, the lab was designed to help emerging producers prepare for a rapidly changing market, according to Sarajevo’s Industry Director Maša Marković. “We really wanted to have something that would be served better [the producers’] needs,” she said. “This is a truly unique generation and a special moment in a producer’s career.”

Marković noted how the rise of both regional and global streaming services has brought new investment to the region, disrupted the traditional supply chain and opened up new opportunities for local producers.

She also pointed to the dramatic, paradigm-shifting events of the past two years as the coronavirus pandemic turned the industry’s typical approach to business on its head.

“You have young producers who came onto the market maybe in 2018 or 2019 and didn’t manage to build their own network of peers. They spent two years behind their desk screens,” Marković said. “A producer’s career is built on making connections, and there are a number of aspiring producers who haven’t been able to do that.”

The three-day training program offers participants skill-building sessions with a variety of seasoned filmmakers and industry experts. You’ll also get access to all CineLink Industry Days events, giving you the opportunity to network not only with leading directors, producers, broadcasters and financiers from across the region, but also with industry players from around the world headed to the Bosnian capital to travel.

“It’s not just about networking, but also giving them a different perspective on things that they can work with more experienced professionals from the area,” Marković said. “We’ve worked with producers who have helped us establish the market for 20 years, and those producers now have their own junior producers. And these up-and-coming producers face completely different challenges in terms of production technology in the region than their bosses. you create [a new] Industry.”

The participants of the first CineLink Producers’ Lab are Nazlı Bulum (Turkey); Diana Caravia, MicroFILM (Romania); Çağla Çağlar, Çağlar Motion Pictures & Film (Turkey); Mina Dreki, Marni Films (Greece); Lamija Đapo, SCCA/pro.ba (Bosnia and Herzegovina); Maria Ibrahimova, Cinex Productions (Azerbaijan); Goce Kralevski, DNF Films (North Macedonia); Marija Lero (Serbia); Miloš Ljubomirović, Servia Films (Serbia); Tekla Machavariani, Nushi Films (Georgia); Tea Matanović, anti-talent (Croatia); Elena Martín, Manifest Film (Romania); Genovéva Petrovits, Kino Alfa (Hungary); Anja Sekulić, roundabout Montenegro (Montenegro); Fani Skartouli, Either/Or Productions (Greece); Tadej Koren Šmid, Studio Virc doo (Slovenia); Ana Vidović, Digital Cinema Environment (Croatia); Ana Voicu, Tangaj Production (Romania); and Miljan Vučelić, Bitter Frames Production (Montenegro).

Below is a selection of projects from the list of upcoming producers:

Maria Ibrahimova (Azerbaijan)
Project: “Hazel Eyes”
Director: Maria Ibrahimova
Authors: Maria Ibrahimova and Lala Aliyeva-Klychkova
Producers: Maria Ibrahimova, Zeynep Atakan, Olga Matat, Silvana Santamaria, Adolf El Assal, Anna Maria Aslanoglu
After losing everything he holds dear in a senseless war, Hasan, an elderly refugee, is evacuated to Baku. Desperate and suicidal, he feels a survivor’s guilt and that he has nothing left to live for. On a rare trip to the bazaar, he meets an old friend who has just returned from Iran and reveals something that makes Hasan come back to life. Born again, he embarks on a journey to find the only thing he has left of his homeland: his best friend and his beloved horse, Hazel Eyes.

Elena Martín, Manifest Film (Romania)
Project: “Tomorrow is not a promise”
Directed by Monica Lazurean-Gorgan
Author: Monica Lăzurean-Gorgan
Producers: Monica Lăzurean-Gorgan and Elena Martin (Manifest Film)
The film documents hunting practice and reflects on human nature. As she shoots this documentary, the director questions her ethical approach to the characters, the subject matter and the entire film-making process.

Miloš Ljubomirović, Servia Films (Serbia)
Project: “Misty in Roots”
Director: Miloš Ljubomirovic
Authors: Abdel Rahim Hherawi and Boris Grgurovic
Producer: Miloš Ljubomirovic (Servia Films)
In Yugoslavia in the mid-1980s, a stubborn young know-it-all is hired to drive his boss across the country to an alcohol rehabilitation clinic.

Anja Sekulić, roundabout Montenegro (Montenegro)
Project: “In Search of Lotika”
Directed by Irena Škoric
Authors: Irena Škorić, Jelena Djurovic, Kosta Pesevski
Producers: Predrag Jakovljevic (Oktobar Film, Serbia), Irena Škorić (Artizana Film, Croatia), Anja Sekulic (Roundabout Montenegro, Montenegro), Danijel Hocevar (Vertigo, Slovenia)
The film follows the mysterious Jewish widow Lotika, the first businesswoman in the Balkans and one of the most memorable characters in the famous novel Bridge over the Drina by Nobel Prize winner Ivo Andrić. It’s a road movie about finding Lotika’s truth from Poland to Israel, but also about burying family wounds.

Miljan Vučelić, Bitter Frames Production (Montenegro)
Project: “Nothing Will Be Named After Me”
Directed by Djordje Vojvodic
Authors: Maja Todorović, Nikola Ljuca, Djordje Vojvodić
Producer: Miljan Vučelić
Once the most powerful man in the country, Maxim is recovering from a stroke and trying to regain the strength he lost during his recovery.

Fani Skartouli, Either/Or Productions (Greece)
Project: “Glory B”
Directed by Konstantinos Antonopoulos
Authors: Konstantinos Antonopoulos and Luigi Campi
Producer: Fani Skartouli
703 AD Shipwreck of two pilloried convicts on a lonely Mediterranean island. Zaharias is a peaceful beekeeper who was wrongly convicted of heresy. Justinian II is a dethroned emperor, punished with a mutilated nose. If they want to survive and reclaim their lives, they need each other. But they can’t get along.

Tea Matanović, anti-talent (Croatia)
Project: “The Premise of the Ocean”
Directed by Tea Matanovic
Author: Tea Matanovic
Producer: Tee Matanovic
A lovable but grumpy professor emeritus causes a university scandal with his outrageous behavior in a small town near the Adriatic Sea. Forced by the college administration, he takes a break from work and embarks on a sudden adventure that will change his circumstances, actions, and relationships. Just like the ocean he will swim in for the first time, he will realize what has been hidden inside him all these years.

Tekla Machavariani, Nushi Film (Georgia)
Project: “Milk & Honey”
Directed by Tornike Gogrichiani
Manufacturer: Tekla Machavariani
In the suburbs of the Georgian city of Kutaisi, teenagers from the same school part ways as one struggles to become a rapper and the other a street gang leader. A strong attraction pulls them together, but at the same time drives them apart.

Genovéva Petrovits, Cinema Alfa (Hungary)
Project: “Democracy Work in Progress”
Director: Mihály Schrechtje
Author: Mihaly Schrechtje
Producer: Szabolcs Hajdu (Látókép, Hungary)
Róbert Mravik’s life is turned upside down when one of his examinees, political activist Júlia Polgár, refuses to pay him the usual bribe to get a driver’s license.

Mina Dreki, Marni Films (Greece)
Project: “Paper Airplane”
Director: Selini Papageorgiou
Author: Selini Papageorgiou
Producer: Mina Dreki (Marni Films, Greece)
When Nefeli finds herself locked in a stranger’s house, the time she spent in quarantine with him will change her forever.

Goce Kralevski, DNF Films (North Macedonia)
Project: “Things Unsaid” (pictured)
Director: Eleonora Veninova
Author: Eleonora Veninova
Producers: Goce Kralevski and Mirjana Tomic (Lilith)
Photographer Anna and her husband Fillip are at their summer home when their rest is disturbed by the arrival of Maya, the daughter of their longtime friends, whom they have not seen for a long time. One night, when Maya returns to the house covered in blood, Anna and Maya share a strange moment of intimacy. Maya’s secret infatuation with Anna reveals everything unspoken that Anna and Fillip have kept secret from each other for years.

Ana Voicu, Tangaj Production (Romania)
Project: “Vasil’s Vacation”
Authors: Bogdan Theodor Olteanu and Adrian Nicolae
Director: Bogdan Theodor Olteanu
Producer: Ana Voicu (Tangaj Production)
A forensic cop is tasked with solving a seemingly trivial murder case, but as he nears the end of the investigation, he dives deeper into a bottomless pit of bureaucracy, political influence and organized crime.

Çağla Çağlar, Çağlar Motion Pictures & Film (Turkey)
Project: “The Wealth”
Directed by Muzaffer Mehmet Caglar
Authors: Muzaffer Mehmet Çağlar and Tahsin Yetkin
Producer: Çağla Çağlar
The deathbed of Mr. Mehmet, who is a well-known and respected merchant in his Anatolian city, becomes an occasion for some. The expectations of his acquaintances and friends who visit him on his sickbed correspond to their own interests. His closest relatives ponder the legacy he will leave behind. Their conflicts of interest will reflect the sociological condition of Turkey, which has been changing and transforming for a long time.

Diana Caravia, microFILM (Romania)
Project: “Still Nia”
Directed by Paula Onet
Author: Paula Onet
Producers: Diana Caravia and Ada Solomon (microFILM, Romania)
Co-Producer: Cedric Bonin (Seppia, France)
Stefania, known as Nia as a child, awakens from 15 years of traumatic amnesia. She is confronted with the overwhelming memories of her childhood, which she spent in Romanian hospitals due to a misdiagnosis. At 33, on the brink of an identity and existential crisis, she undertakes an inner exploration through various body practices (contemporary dance, sensitive movement) and by escaping into her own imagination, mixing her childhood dreams with reinvented memories. At the border between reality and fiction, the film accompanies you on this path of resilience, reconciliation with your own past, your own body and thus your own present.

Nazli Bulum (Turkey)
Project: “I love you, Turkey”
Director: Ceren Ercan, Nazlı Bulum
Authors: Ceren Ercan, Nazlı Bulum
Producers: Yagmur Dolkun, Nazli Bulum
The city’s water supply has been cut off and five people cross paths in a laundromat, questioning their sense of belonging to their country. The laundromat owner begins to fabricate strange evidence against her from her dirty laundry, claiming to have received specific instructions. Stuck in the laundromat, they are confronted with memories they have long suppressed. As time and space begin to shift and reality increasingly fades, the music becomes either their path to revolution or yet another illusion in which they take refuge to escape the truth.