In addition to My Morning Laughter, Marko Djordjević’s feature film debut, Merry Christamas, Yiwu, Mladen Kovačević’s new feature documentary, is also part of the Bright Future program of the upcoming edition of the International Film Festival in Rotterdam (IRFF). It will be the film’s world premiere.
According to the authors and producers, this is an intimate film about the everyday life of Chinese workers, caught between communist tradition and the newly established Chinese dream of success. It takes us to Yiwu, a city with 600 factories of Christmas decorations that produce Christmas for the whole world.
Writer and director is Mladen Kovačević, producers are Iva Plemić Divjak, Mario Adamson and Rut Reid, and co-producers are Jasmina Sijeričić, Hajno Dekert and Teri Detej. The editor is Jelena Maksimović, director of photography is Marko Milovanović. Music is by Olof Dreijer. Sound design and mix are by Patrik Stromdal, and the post-production sound assistant is Pavle Kovačević.
The film was produced under the auspices of Horopter Film Production from Serbia and Sysifos Film Production from Sweden, in co-production with houses from France, Germany and Belgium, the German ARTE Channel (NDR) and RTBF – Belgian National Television. The creation of the film was supported, among other things, by the Film Center Serbia and the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia.
After studying film in Belgrade, London and Cape Town, Mladen Kovačevićdirected Unplugged (2013), The Wall of Death and So On (2016) and 4 Years in 10 Minutes (2018). His poetics is grounded in the simplicity of realism, and his films explore different styles and idiosyncratic dramatic structures with an unconventional approach to naturalistic aesthetics. Kovačević’s previous films were screened in the competition selections of Visions duRéel, IDFA, Hot Docs, CPH: DOX, FIDMarseille and have been awarded and distributed internationaly. He is currently developing Beginnings – an experimental documentary based on diary entries – and Koryo, which will be filmed in North Korea.