Short: Scorched Earth + Celebration

The most acclaimed Croatian production of 2024 is a gripping insight into the country's painful history before the Second World War. It was awarded Best Film, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography and Best Actor at the Pula Film Festival. The award for Best Actor went to Bernard Tomić for his performance as Mijo, a young villager whose innocence is gradually destroyed by conflict, hardship and unrest between 1926 and 1945. The deeply moving film, based on the successful 2019 novel of the same name by Damir Karakaš, was shot in the remote rural areas of the Lika region where the events of the book take place and takes the viewer on a compelling journey into the heart of 20th century darkness.


SCORCHED EARTH

by Markela Kontaratou (2023, 16 min)
Greece, United Kingdom

Inspired by Hitchcock's The Window to the Courtyard, this award-winning and suspenseful short film delves into the dark side of the Greek summer. Student Stela flees the sweltering heat of Athens to her family home by the sea in idyllic Porto Rafti. There she wants to work on her thesis, but instead she becomes an unwitting witness to the violent relationship between a neighbour and his girlfriend. The film, which was made as part of writer and director Kontaratou's studies at the London Film School and in which several nationalities worked behind the camera, is an impressive calling card for all those involved - Hungarian cinematographer Tamás A. Méder, who shot on 16 mm material, provides remarkable shadow effects and vivid splashes of colour.