Will Not Stop There

Colour, 35 mm
Croatia, Serbia, 2008, 112 min
IP – International premiere
Section: Official Selection - Competition

Synopsis

Djuro is neither Serb nor Croat. He is a Romany, he has a large, happy family and earns a living appearing in obscure Serbian porn films. And it’s through his open-minded, sarcastic perspective that we follow the story of the Croatian war veteran Martin. The young man’s life takes a considerably bizarre turn when he sees the beautiful Desa in a porn version of Little Red Riding Hood. Djuro, who gives a highly convincing performance as the wolf, agrees to help the young man find the girl, who turns out to be a prostitute. Since there isn’t any alternative, Martin buys Desa from her pimp and takes her away from Belgrade to Zagreb. The seriously traumatised girl thinks this is just another man who wants to take advantage of her and she doesn’t understand what Martin wants from her. What’s more, both protagonists have something in their past which comes back to haunt them, even now the war has ended. Experienced director Vinko Brešan has come up with a tragicomic story of love in a world where it seems all human values are put up for sale or destined for cynical destruction.

About the director

Vinko Brešan (b. 1964, Zagreb) studied philosophy and comparative literature before mooring on to film and TV direction at the Academy of Dramatic Arts. His short student film Our Exchange (Naša burza) was awarded at the Oberhausen IFF in 1987. He gave his debut with the low-budget war comedy How the War Started on My Island (Kako je počeo rat na mom otoku, 1996 – Grand Prix at the Festival of Young East European Cinema in Cottbus) which, after the Hollywood hit Titanic, was the biggest Croatian box office success in twenty years. His next film, the comedy Marshal Tito’s Spirit (Maršal, 1999) won prizes at the international film festivals in Karlovy Vary (Best Direction in 2000) and Berlin (Forum – Wolfgang Staudte Award). In 2003 he made the war drama Witnesses (Svjedoci – Peace Film Award and Ecumenical Jury Award at the Berlin IFF, Philip Morris Award at the KVIFF). He also directs for the theatre.