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The Hunt (2020)
Best Short film at Merlinka festival
In the great selection, it was difficult to single out and reward just one film. "The Hunt" is a universal story that each of us can identify with. The director-screenwriter tandem depicts the Turkish part of Cyprus today, but also shows a conservative father anywhere in this part of Europe, who is ready to kill his only son because he decided to love another man.
Jury statement.
The sudden discovery of his son's secret turns Ibrahim's traditional world upside down. Fraught with emotional conflict, he takes his son Ismail on a fateful trip. Cyprus' first fiction tackling homophobia and patriarchy, told from an intersectional, queer, and feminist perspective.
Maldita. A Love Song to Sarajevo (2021)
Best Short Documentary at Merlinka festival
Through the creation of music and friendship, the film develops a narrative that is continuously imbued with emotional charge. Through music, Bozo writes an intimate love letter that he dedicates to Sarajevo, describing his experiences with the city. The way he loves and gives love is embodied by his authentic personality, which is sure of who it is and without hesitation presents itself to the world and above all to its city, which, as he says himself, accepts him, because for him they are "two playful beings in a whirlwind of art".
Jury Statement.
God is love. His homeland is the Earth. His genre? Human. In Maldita, a love song to Sarajevo, Bozo Vreco, the most revolutionary artist of the Balcans sings to life, to overcoming obstacles, and the love story of two cities, Sarajevo and Barcelona. They both knew how to find themselves in difficult times to never day goodbye.
Kristina (2022)
Best Feature Film at Merlinka festival
A film that surprised us, a small film that talks about faith, the courage to be who you are, the guilt of being who you are, about morality in an immoral country, about heritage, about identity, about the desire to belong and love.
The film also received the Special award at Merlinka festival.
Feature film based on the real person Kristina who plays herself in the film. Kristina is a transgender sex worker who lives with a cat, collects antiques and undergoes non-hypnotic regression sessions. After one session, she accidentally meets Mark and at that moment, platonic love is born between these two people whose random encounters are yet to come. In her search for antiques, Christina increasingly discovers Christianity and accepts it as the only truth. Mark accepts Christina as a woman, but he is upset that she can't give birth to his children.
Framing Agnes (2022)
Best Documentary at Merlinka festival
Framing Agnes is history, a film made from archive footage that was never filmed. But acted in this way are no less believable - one of the actors points out that it is interesting that it is not known in what tone the test subjects uttered the written sentences, but no matter how a word is interpreted, one thing is important - each one was uttered by a trans woman, or some trans man at a time when the world didn't even know they existed. So limited, spoken in an office and locked in archives, they are still a revolution, because the rebellion starts from the first spoken syllable. We repeat once again - Framing Agnes is history and a very important film.
Pentola (2022)
Best Animated film at Merlinka festival
The jury agreed that Pentola is by far the most effective film in this year's program. First of all, the story crosses different worlds, realities and dreams in a very witty and effective way. Especially interesting is the look at the superhero aspect of the story, which in the era of general popularity of superheroes on the big screen is extremely original and subtly executed. In contrast to the dominant bad art style that pervades most of the films in this year's program and the production in general, Pentola is performed as a conceptualized drawing, which convincingly combines extraordinary artistry and precise film direction.