The European Film Academy has announced the first selection of films that will compete in several categories for the EFA awards this year. Among the 30 European productions, the only majority production from our region is the film As Far AS I Can Wlk by Stefan Arsenijević, which was filmed with the support of Film Center Serbia. This year’s 35th EFA Awards ceremony will be held in December in Reykjavík.
Arsenijević has already won the award of the European Film Academy once: in 2003 he was awarded the EFA award for the best short film for “(A)torsion” for which he was awarded the “Golden Bear” in Berlin, which in 2004 earned him an Oscar nomination in the best short feature film category.
“Strahinja Banović” had its world premiere at one of the most important European festivals, the 55th International Film Festival in Karlovy Vary, where it won as many as five awards, including the main prize, the Grand Prix Crystal Globe for the best film. This is the first time in this century that a Serbian film has triumphed in the main competition program at one of the world’s most important A category festivals. The film has so far participated in 40 international film festivals and won 20 awards.
Ovo ostvarenje će se naći u domaćim bioskopima na jesen.
The film is a modern adaptation of the famous Serbian folk epic poem “Banović Strahinja”, set in the contemporary context of the refugee crisis. The main character is a young migrant from Africa who, in the desire to fit in as well as possible in the new environment, takes the Serbian name Strahinja. With his wife Ababuo, he lives in a refugee camp in Krnjača near Belgrade, until a new wave of refugees from Syria, including the charismatic Ali, brings unrest into their lives. French actor Ibrahim Koma, Austrian actress Nancy Mensa Ofei and Syrian actor Maxim Khalil play the main roles in this powerful and authentic love story. All the extras and some minor roles in the film are played by real migrants from several refugee camps in Serbia.
The film was co-produced by Serbia, France, Bulgaria, Luxembourg and Lithuania. The Serbian producer is Miroslav Mogorović on behalf of the company “Art & Popcorn”, in cooperation with “Cinnamon Film”. The film was supported by the Film Center Serbia, the Council of Europe Fund – Eurimazh, the Luxembourg Film Fund, the French National Film Center, the Bulgarian National Film Center, the Lithuanian Film Center, Creative Europe – MEDIA and the Government of the Republic of Serbia.