This year’s Croatian Film Days, taking place from 15 to 18 October at Kino Edison in Karlovac, will feature three films produced by Kreativni sindikat in the competition programme – Dea Jagić’s animated film ‘Four’, and the experimental-documentary films ‘Leave this Room Buried’ by Iva Kraljević and ‘Greetings from the Secretariat’ by Ivan Ramljak.
In the animated film ‘Four’, Dea Jagić takes us into a world without water, where four beings embark on a mystical journey, calling forth new life. The film runs for 6 minutes and 28 seconds and combines 2D and stop-motion animation. Jagić is credited with direction, cinematography, animation and production design, and co-wrote the screenplay with Božidar Trkulja. It has so far been screened at a number of Croatian and international festivals, including Curta Cinema, Filmfest Dresden, Chilemonos, Animafest Zagreb, Supertoon and the Riga International Film Festival.
Iva Kraljević’s experimental documentary ‘Leave This Room Buried’ follows a journey through personal imagination and fragile verses in a world falling apart, capturing grief, complicity in silence and fragments of presence in what remains. The film runs for 17 minutes and 13 seconds, with Kraljević credited with the screenplay, direction, cinematography, editing and sound design. The film premiered at DokuFest and received awards for Best Regional Film and Best Sound Design at the Liburnia Film Festival, as well as the Grand Prix at Split Film Festival.
The third title, Ivan Ramljak’s ‘Greetings from the Secretariat’, is an documentary experimental-film. A seemingly idyllic island becomes the setting for a crime story assembled from photographs found in an abandoned police station. Spanning several decades and two political systems, the photographs open up a story about a society and its pathologies. Ramljak is credited with the direction and screenplay, Ivor Šonje with editing, and Hrvoje Nikšić with sound design. The film premiered at Beldocs and was also screened at UnderHillFest, FeKK, ZagrebDox,… ‘Greetings from the Secretariat’ was also awarded the 2026 Vedran Šamanović Award this year. The award was presented to Ivan Ramljak for the film’s innovative approach, which, according to the jury’s citation, expanded the boundaries of film expression in Croatian cinema.
This year’s competition programme was selected from a record 209 submitted films, with 51 films selected in total: 11 documentaries, 14 fiction films, 6 animated films, 10 experimental films and 10 commissioned films. The selection brings together a range of cinematic forms and authorial approaches, from explorations of the possibilities of film itself to works addressing society, communication, community, the environment and the contemporary world.
