08-10-2024

PRODUCTION: Irena Škorić Shoots Five Countries Coproduction Doc In Search of Lotika

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    In search of Lotika by Irena Škorić shooting In search of Lotika by Irena Škorić shooting credit: Roundabout Montenegro

    HERCEG NOVI: Croatian director Irena Škorić began shooting her long documentary In Search of Lotika / U potrazi za Lotikom in the House of Nobel laureate Ivo Andrić in Herceg Novi, Montenegro last weekend. The film is a coproduction between Serbia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Croatia and Poland.

    Montenegrin journalist Jelena Đurović receives an unusual task from her mother, Svetlana: she must go to Višegrad, to the grave of her great-grandmother, Serafina, and say the Kaddish, as the prayer for the dead was not held when she was buried. Svetlana also asks her daughter to find out as much as possible about the fate of Lotika Zellermeier (1860-1938), the sister of Serafina.

    Lotika not only inspired one of the most famous characters in Ivo Andrić’s novel The Bridge on the Drina (1961), but she was also one of the first women who ran a private business in the Balkans, as she was the manager of a hotel in Visegrad, and fought for her position as a woman.

    Serbia’s Oktobar Film is producing in coproduction with Roundabout Montenegro from Podgorica, Slovenia’s Vertigo, Croatia’s Artizana Film and Poland’s Krakow Film Cluster.

    The producers are Predrag Jakovljević, Anja Rajšel, Irena Škorić, Danijel Hočevar, Aneta Zagórska, while Miroslav Jakovljević is the executive producer.

    Film Center Serbia, the Film Centre of Montenegro, the Radio Television of Slovenia, the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, the Polish Film Institute and the Municipality of Herceg Novi are supporting the project.

    “The film is a road movie about Lotika's search for the truth from Tarnovo in Poland, through Herceg Novi, Sarajevo, Zagreb, Belgrade, Ljubljana and to Višegrad, but also about burying old family wounds”, reads a press release issued by the Film Centre of Montenegro. In addition to the aforementioned towns, the crew will also shoot in Warsaw and Krakow.

    Production Information:

    Producer:
    Oktobar Film (Serbia)
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    Coproducers:
    Roundabout Montenegro (Montenegro)
    Vertigo (Slovenia)
    Artizana Film (Croatia)
    Krakow Film Cluster (Poland)

    Credits:
    Director: Irena Škorić
    Scriptwriters: Jelena Đurović, Kosta Peševski, Irena Škorić
    DoP: Darko Herič
    Editor: Silvije Magdić
    Sound: Đoko Jablan
    Make-up artist: Milka Stojanović