The 22^nd Zagreb Film Festival launches with the Zagreb premiere of director Bruno Anković’s feature debut, Celebration, on Monday, 4 November, at 7:30 p.m at CineStar Branimir. This compelling and powerful drama covers the period from 1920 to the start of the World War II and centres on Mijo, a soldier from a rural area. Through three key moments in his life, Celebration ​​investigates the circumstances that have led to the expansion of extremism in society, or, in the words of its director: “Once again, we see dark forces looming over us in today’s society, so I thought it was important to tell a story about the past in order to start talking about the present”.

Producers Tina Tišljar and Rea Rajčić and members of the film crew and cast headed by actors Krešimir Mikić, Klara Fiolić, Lars Štern, Jan Doležal and Tanja Smoje will join the director at the gala screening. Based on the eponymous novel by Damir Karakaš, Celebration premiered at Karlovy Vary, and having brought home a handful of awards from the Pula Film Festival, after ZFF, continues its tour of domestic cinemas staring 14 November.

During the seven festival days, from Monday to Sunday, and the official closing ceremony on Saturday with the screening of Pedro Almodóvar’s Golden Lion-winning The Room Next Door, the Zagreb audience will have a chance to see over 100 feature and short films from around the globe. Already on Tuesday evening, lead actresses Tessa Van den Broeck and Grace Biot arrive to the premiere of Julie Keeps Quiet in the Feature Film competition. Wednesday is reserved for the Croatian premiere of Italian feature Diva Futura in the program The Great 5, with one of the lead actresses Tesa Litvan in attendance, while on Thursday, get ready for the suspenseful Lithuanian film puzzle in the thriller Drowning Dry, also in the main Feature Film competition, which will be attended by actresses Gelminė Glemžaitė and Agnė Kaktaitė, laureates of this year’s Locarno Film Festival.

Besides Drowning Dry, fans of thrillers and crime fiction will be delighted by Santosh, Sandhya Suri’s feature debut, which provides a dramatic insight into the world of law, castes, religion and gender relations in the stratified Indian society, as well as Janez Burger’s powerful psychological thriller Observing, and Vatroslav Mimica’s 1969 anthology feature Event. The latter thriller with elements of horror, crowned with Golden Arenas for Best Film, Direction and Cinematography, screens on Saturday at Cinema Kinoteka.

The main Feature Film competition also includes several wonderful coming-of-age titles competing for the Young Jury Award together with other films in the program PLUS. In addition to the above-mentioned Julie Keeps Quiet, these are Agatha Riedinger’s powerful drama Wild Diamond, which tells the story of a fame-seeking misfit teenage girl, addressing the age-old need of vulnerable people to be seen and acknowledged, as well as the warm-hearted and painfully honest Thai comedy, How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies directed by Pat Boonnitipat.

After the festival’s opening screening, head over to the opening party at Scenoteka (ex Vidra) in the immediate vicinity of CineStar Branimir, this year’s official spot for gettogethers and chats before and after the screenings. Every evening during the festival, well-known DJs such as HvalaSven, Tali (ex Svemirko), uncleFunk, Minolta and LukadeLux will entertain festival guests from 7 p.m. at Scenoteka. Also, on Wednesday, 6 November, at the open-invite party at Tvornica kulture – Small Hall, the audience is in for entertainment by Vitamin Disco.

Find out more about the 22nd edition of the Zagreb Film Festival here.

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