East of the West - Competition 2007 / Armin / Croatia, Germany, Bosnia and Herzegovina 2007
This intimate story recounts the tale of a father and son who set off from their remote little Bosnian town and head for a five-star Zagreb hotel. They plan to conquer the world and land 14-year-old Armin the starring role in a planned film.
It’s a big day for 14-year-old Armin and especially for his father Ibro, who set off from their God-forsaken little Bosnian town for the capital of Croatia. A film crew from Germany has arrived in Zagreb who plan to film a story about the recent war and they’re holding auditions for the part of the main child character. The boy is relatively calm about the whole thing, whereas his father sees it as the only chance to fulfil his buried dream of a happy and financially secure life. It appears that Ibro is willing to do anything to ensure his son’s success. Beg, cajole and even humiliate himself if need be, which Armin finds extremely distressing. He feels he is being betrayed by the person closest to him. The moment it seems that they have come all this way for nothing (even though they are both awestruck by the luxury hotel room), they get an unexpected offer. And the father’s reaction to it is just as surprising. For Armin, however, it’s proof of the love he had begun to have doubts about. This original, intimate story is related in a quasi-documentary style.
82 min / Color, 35 mm
Director Ognjen Sviličić
/ Screenplay Ognjen Sviličić
/ Dir. of Photography Stanko Herceg
/ Music Michael Bauer (Werkstatt Raben), Georg Karger, Peter Holzapfel
/ Editor Vjeran Pavlinić
/ Producer Damir Teresak, Mirko Galić, Markus Halberschmidt, Marcelo Busse, Ademir Kenović
/ Production Mixima Film, busse & halberschmidt, Refresh Production
/ Cast Emir Hadžihafizbegović, Armin Omerović-Muhedin, Jens Münchov, Marie Bäumer, Barbara Prpić, Orhan Güner
/ Contact MDC Int. GmbH, busse & halberschmidt
www: www.mdc-int.de
Ognjen Sviličić (b. 1971, Split, Yugoslavia), screenwriter and director, studied at the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb and was soon making his first TV film Full House (1997). His next film was also made for television, Ante Is Coming Home (2002). The mosaic of stories and experiences of a night in Split If I Were a Shark (1999) was hailed Best Croatian Film at the Pula festival and was the domestic box-office hit of the year. Comic hyperbole also typifies the story Sorry for Kung Fu (2004). Its heroine is the pregnant Mira, who returns from Germany to her native village and her relatives pass her off as a wretched widow until she gives birth to a slant-eyed little boy. Armin, screened at this year’s Berlinale in the Forum section, is also one of a series of film miniatures for which he wrote the screenplay, among other things. He composed the music for his first two films and, for Armin, he also recorded the guitar tracks.
MDC Int. GmbH
Schillerstr. 7a, D - 10625, Berlin
Germany
Phone: +49 30 264 979 00
Fax: +49 30 264 979 10
E-mail: [email protected]
busse & halberschmidt
Kai Strasse 14a, 402 21, Düsseldorf
Germany
Phone: +49 211 862 8598
Fax: +49 211 311 20 804
E-mail: [email protected]
Marta Švecová
Festival Organizer, Film Institution Rep., Sales Agent
Wigbert Moschall
Distributor
Ognjen Sviličić
Screenwriter
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