North American Premiere
At the turn of the 20th century, a Chilean woman shows up in a remote Croatian community of shepherds, claiming to be the widow of the family’s eldest son who moved away years ago in search of a more prosperous life abroad. While her appearance is at first exciting, her otherness quickly sows seeds of discord among the clan, whose mistrust towards anything and anyone different brings deeply buried tensions to a boil.
Manuela Martelli and Ana Marija Veselčić are riveting in their meaty, defiant turns as two outcasts who form an unlikely bond in the face of social rejection, which earned the two actors a joint award for Best Performance at this year’s Locarno Film Festival. Evoking the work of cinema auteurs like Jane Campion, this wickedly moody, beautifully lensed feminist period piece is as formally accomplished as it is daring in its unique fusion of genre and ethnographic motifs.
Best Performance, Locarno 2025
Oct 5 & 6: Q&A
Supported by
Media Partner
Community Partner
Manuela Martelli, Ana Marija Veselčić, Filip Đurić, Mauro Ercegović Gracin, Nikša Butijer
Croatia/Italy/Romania/
Greece/France/Slovenia
2025
In Croatian and Spanish with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Credits & Director
Producer
Ankica Jurić Tilić
Screenwriter
Hana Jušić
Cinematography
Jana Plećaš
Editor
Jan Klemsche
Production Design
Laura Boni
Original Music
Stavros Evangelou, Iris Asimakopoulou, Vasilis Chontos
Hana Jušić
Hana Jusic, born 1983 in Šibenik, Croatia, obtained her master’s degree in film and TV directing from the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb. She wrote and directed several short films prior to her feature film debut, Quit Staring at My Plate (2016), a Croatian–Danish co-production that won more than 30 awards including Best Director at the Tokyo International Film Festival, Grand Prix at the Crossing Europe festival in Linz, and Best Feature Film at Valladolid, among others. Jusic’s screenwriting credits include two feature films and the TV series The Last Socialist Artefact (2021), which she co-wrote.
Filmography: Transmania (2016)
Photo by Glorija Lizde
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Buffalo '66
Vincent Gallo's directorial debut is an eccentric, provocative comedy which laces a poignant love story with both a sombre, washed-out naturalism and surreal musical vignettes. This one is something different...
Run Lola Run
In the hyper intense world of pre-millennial Berlin, Lola has just 20 minutes to come up with a 100,000 Deutchmarks or her boyfriend cops it. He's asking the right woman: Lola won't stop til she's saved the day... It's Speed, in the multiverse...
Saving Private Ryan
Steven Spielberg's gripping war movie was hailed as an instant classic in 1998, and he won his second Academy Award in five years for Best Director. Matt Damon takes the title role, Tom Hanks is charged with bringing him home from the front.
Palimpsest: The Story of a Name
Drawing on home movies and diaries from the 1930s, 40s, 50s and 60s, Canadian filmmaker Mary Stephen (Eric Rohmer's editor for many years) investigates the origins of her surname. After all, she was born in Hong Kong to Chinese parents. Or were they... ?
Searching for Satyrus
Award-winning filmmaker and photographer Rena Effendi embarks on a quest to track down the very rare Satyrus Effendi, a butterfly discovered by her father in the mountains of Aberbaijain. But what she finds is altogether more personal, and more upsetting.
