The story starts in a Bosnian woods in 1993, when a women gives birth to a baby boy, and jumps to 2007, to an orphanage in Sarajevo which is home to a boy, Alen. He believes his parents are a French lady and an Englishman who met as war reporters in Sarajevo and due to war and professional obligations have temporarily left him in the orphanage.

Screenwriter Zlatko Topcic describes the film The Abandoned as a "look at the Bosnian war through the eyes of a boy who was born not as the fruit of love, but of hatred, and is part of a whole new people, nameless and unwanted, whose mothers were raped, and the search for identity, the search for his biological parents, who, each with his or her own reasons, do not want him - him, clean, sinless, innocent in everything, uninvolved in the sins of other."

{mosimage}Bakrac (born in 1974 in Bihac) directed several documentaries and TV movies, from 2004 to 2009 was the Editor of Culture and Entertainment programs on Bosnian Federal TV, and now is the General Manager of the Film Center Sarajevo. Ostavljeni (The Abandoned) is his first feature film.

When asked about his reasons for making a film on Bosnian orphans, he replied that he believed that he had a task to tell the truth about the situation with these kids. "An artist should not avoid heavy subjects. Art should express the truth, there should be no manipulation," says Bakrac. He had a long period of research and visited many associations of war victims.

Filming started in 2007 (the working title was Gola koza / Bare Skin) , but the film was finished only recently because of financial problems. The film will have its first screening in one of its producing countries on July 21 at the Pula Film Festival in Croatia.

Production Credits:

Production house: Heft Production (www.heft.com.ba)

Co-production companies:
Olimp produkcija, Croatia (www.olimp.hr)
A+D Films, Serbia (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
Dari Films, France (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

Credits:

Director: Adis Bakrac

Producer: Almir Sahinovic

Co-producers: Marijo Vukadin (Olimp produkcija, Croatia), Biljana Buncic (A+D Films, Serbia), Marie-Anne Coste (Dari Films, France)
Screenwriter: Zlatko Topcic

Director of Photography: Vladan Radovic

Film editor: Mitshko Nechak

Set Designer: Emir Geljo

Costume Designer: Azra Mehic

Composer: Vlado Podany

Sound: Novica Jankov

Make-up: Vesna Trograncic


Cast:
Tony Grga
Mirsad Tuka
Mira Furlan
Dragan Marinkovic
Mirela Lambic
Zijah Sokolovic