Akademija dramske umjetnosti (ADU)

A series of portraits of people I met through various posts and advertisements in the winter of 2021/2022.

Filip and Livija are son and mother. When, at the urging of Livija's younger boyfriend Roko, they steal the dog of the famous Croatian singer Severina, a long-kept secret of Filip's comes to light, prompting Livija to reconsider the way she raised him.

Thursday morning, Jerusalem. Nira goes to work. Ahmad in London does the same, Ralf in Cologne and a priest in Prague too. Matija, Croat, goes to work as well. Ok, he doesn't, but he acts as if he does. Ahmad is taking his routine red bus journey. Out-of-breath young man comes in and interrupts it. Schoolteacher Nira is also interrupted - her pupil jumps out and performs a love rap song he wrote for her. The priest in Prague doesn't feel like singing today, he is in the mood for (over)sleeping instead. Someone falls asleep, someone else - Ralf - falls in love. All five mentioned above are listening to the top-news about the disappearance of bees. And trying their best, each one of them in his or her own 'hive': Zagreb, Jerusalem, London, Cologne, Prague...

A story about a father and a son who are drinking milk together for the last time.

During a reality show a war starts, but the producer will do anything to hide it from the contestants.

Classical music program on one Zagreb radio station is suddenly interrupted when disturbed war veteran, armed with hadngrenade and explosives, breaks in with strange demands and convincing threats.

Sandra is an overly sensitive young woman who, when under pressure, has trouble with deciphering the line between reality and her twisted fantasies. During her husband's birthday party, she has to spend a day with his family. Their barely concealed hostility is making her gradually lose her mind.

Three sisters are desperate to escape from their family home in rural Croatia. They want to get away from their passive father and overbearing mother, who is feuding with the next-door neighbour over land ownership.

An omnibus consisting of three documentary stories from Zagreb life.

An early summer evening begins with a game, while one kid counts to three thousand, the others hide in a row of suburban gardens. During that time, a young father spends the rest of his day with someone else’s child, an old man awaits a call that will change his life and the future of a year-long friendship becomes uncertain. The game ends when mosquitoes start rising from the grass.

Danijel and his Mom live together in a squalid flat. Daniel never leaves his armchair and spends his days reading comic books. One day Daniel’s Mom, after seeing a television programme How Clean is Your House, decides to clean the flat and give Danijel a bath. Finally in exhaustion, she falls asleep in her armchair, and Danijel runs away from home. He ends up at the train station but instead of boarding a train, he just stands on the platform and watches the trains go by. This is where his Mom will eventually find him and take him back home.

A couple goes on an imaginary journey that will take them through an entire life span. Reality and illusion, highs and lows of human existence, moments of great tenderness and moments of sheer cruelty become interchangeable.

Few brief encounters during the working night of lonely taxi driver.

Tina and her cousin Max cannot stand their Grandma's bad soup, scorching summer heat and utmost boredom any more. Both of them wish they were somewhere else, with some other people. Unfortunately, they only have each other.

When his boyfriend suddenly leaves him without an explanation, Michel develops a fear of emotional attachment. He starts meeting other people, but every new pair of hands remind him of his ex.

In the war-driven Balkans in 1991, four friends meet to pay respect to a dead friend...

Five yuppies go on a paintball session up in the hilly area of Zagorje where they soon lose contact to one another, but they've been discovered by a family of native villagers who make a home-made delicacy. They soon find out what are the ingredients of their hosts' recipee.

A short talk on having sex in the woods.

A Croatian short film.

In 1974 communist authorities built the so-called ‘Memorial Home for WWII Resistance Fighters and Youth of Yugoslavia’ in Kumrovec, a tiny rural hometown of the legendary president Marshal Tito. In 1991, when Yugoslavia collapsed 11 years after Tito’s death and the Croatian War of Independence started, the Memorial Home was closed, and it remained closed until today. Several attempts to repurpose the building have failed. Still, some fighters remain...