Along with some well-known faces, while inevitably multitasking, we eagerly awaited another opening of the Four River Film Festival. While the rehearsal was taking place at Foginovo beach by the river Korana, our intervention squad rushed to the grocery store to arm themselves with lemons, which ended with overflowing cash registers, many bags, each containing exactly 15 lemons (verified information) and finally sprinting back “as if we had robbed the store”.
Our veterans Petra Cicvarić and Vedrana Mihalić expertly and wittily introduced us to this year’s festival program, which was closely monitored by the team from Izvan fokusa, who were broadcasting the opening via live stream for those who could not join us in person. At the same time, we recorded timelapses from the diving board on Korana, which was often accompanied by “is it recording, wait, I have to turn on the camera” from our professional team.
In addition to hanging out by the popcorn stand, we watched Murina, the latest film by Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović, which won the Caméra d’Or (the award for best debut film in Cannes), and which impressed the audience in Karlovac with its serious theme, touching acting and its carefully thought-out shots. In order not to completely spoil our reputation by being too serious, we finally cheered up with pizza and a lively conversation about the next day’s screenings.
The director of the Education and Teacher Training Agency, Dubravka Brezak Stamać, who joined us at the opening, believes that festivals like these are important for young artists who create a profession out of their love of film, i.e. develop and show their creative abilities in a good way. She pointed out: “Let’s take the example of Sanja Zanki, who presents the progress both young filmmakers and the festival itself have made over the years… Not only successful, but also charismatic, she managed to attract a new generation of filmmakers and today the festival would not function if it were not for a team of people who work towards the same goal.”
The President of the Croatian Audiovisual Center, Christopher Peter Marcich, told us that he was glad to return to the festival for the second year in a row. Delighted with the organization, the concept and the locations, he believes that such festivals are extremely important for the development of passion and love for film. Impressed by the work of young artists, he enjoys watching their works at various festivals.
Laura Pribanić, one of the young filmmakers whose first experience on a professional film set was on the set of “Murina”, presented the film to us and in this issue of Bottle Daily we bring you her text about the collaboration with Antoneta and the whole film crew.
