Nejc Gazvoda, whose previous films include “A Trip” and “Dual,” has started shooting “Father Figure” in his home town, Novo Mesto, Slovenia. The film will be shot in 25 days and is expected to be completed in the spring of 2023, online news service Film New Europe reports.

“Father Figure” is an absurdist tale, written by Gazvoda, which follows a mother and her son who move from Ljubljana to a small town after the mother’s divorce. Jan is in his final year of elementary school, and Maja is a psychologist at the same school. The film begins with the reopening of schools after the end of the pandemic, but things do not seem to be the way they were before.

“ ‘Father Figure’ is a film about a particular period (the middle of 2021), set in an elementary school, and all the issues it deals with are concrete: peer violence, loneliness, dignity. At the same time, it is a trip back to my elementary school years and my youth, which seem more unnatural with each passing year, just like the times we are living in now. This is probably my most personal project, set in the most impersonal era of recent history,” Gazvoda said in a statement.

The main characters are played by Mojca Funkl, France Mandić and Jure Henigman. Slovenia’s Perfo is producing in coproduction with Evolution Films from the Czech Republic and La Sarraz Pictures from Italy.

FESTIVAL
The Prague Intl. Film Festival – Febiofest has announced the program for its 29th edition, which takes place April 28 – May 4. Approximately 100 films, including VR productions, will be screened. Roger Michell’s “The Duke” will open the festival, and Nicolas Bedos’ “OSS 117: From Africa With Love” will close it.

The Czech actor Karel Roden and Ukrainian director Oleg Sentsov will receive honorary Kristián Awards, and Sentsov’s “Rhino” will have its Czech premiere during the festival. The festival’s retrospective is dedicated to the Dutch filmmaker Alex van Warmerdam.

The main competition comprises seven debuts or second films, including six directed by women. The films competing are Tea Lindeburg’s “As in Heaven” (Denmark), Cécile Ducrocq’s “Her Way” (France), Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic’s “Murina” (Croatia, Brazil, U.S., Slovenia), Francesco Sossai’s “Other Cannibals” (Germany), Aga Woszczyńska’s “Silent Land” (Poland, Czech Republic, Italy), Kaltrina Krasniqi’s “Vera Dreams of the Sea” (Kosovo, Albania, Macedonia), and Dina Amer’s “You Resemble Me” (France, Egypt, U.S.).

DISTRIBUTION
Ilze Burkovska Jacobsen’s antiwar feature-length animated film “My Favorite War” was released in more than 40 movie theaters in France this week. The release had been postponed for more than a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The French distribution company, Destiny Films, acquired the film after its world premiere at the Annecy Intl. Animation Film Festival in 2020, where it won the Contrechamp Award and the Senscritique Jury Prize.

After Annecy, “My Favorite War” was shown in around 30 festivals around the world, and received rave reviews, including from the French press, where it was called “a masterpiece.”

The film tells the story of the director’s childhood in Latvia during the 1970s at a time of the Soviet occupation of the country. It was produced by the Latvian company Ego Media in coproduction with Norwegian Bivrost Film & TV.

This article is published in partnership with online news service Film New Europe, which covers film and TV industry news from across Central and Eastern Europe.

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