The Together Again competition program for new films of already established authors includes nine films of directors whose career ZFF has been following since their beginnings.

Radu Jude stands out among them as a leading Romanian director and two-time winner of ZFF (The Happiest Girl in the World – ZFF 2009, special mention; Everybody in Our Family – ZFF 2020, Golden Pram; Aferim! – ZFF 2016). In his latest film, Uppercase Print, Jude digs deep into the archives of Ceauşescu’s regime, giving us a fascinating insight into the secret national past with a warning about the dangers of collective forgetting.

Xavier Dolan is a six-time participant of ZFF. For his feature debut I Killed My Mother, he won the Golden Pram award for best film in 2009. His new film, Matthias & Maxime is a romance built on the awkwardness of manhood and a wistful study of love and friendship.

Icelandic director Rúnar Rúnarsson (Volcano – ZFF 2011; Sparrows – ZFF 2015) returns to the ZFF program with an atypical Christmas film, Echo, in which he uses 56 poetic tableaus to reveal Iceland in all its complex fullness, composing an incisive, but gentle portrait of contemporary society. The program also features a new film by the Golden Pram winner for his feature debut, The Lunchbox (ZFF 2013), Photograph by Ritesh Batra. In his charming fourth film, Batra draws inspiration from Bollywood musicals and Shakespeare’s comedies to offer a different story about love in the contradictory world of urban India. Director Carlos Marques-Marcet (10.000 KM – ZFF 2015; Anchor and Hope – ZFF 2018) returns to ZFF with The Days to Come, an authentic story about pregnancy and transformation of a relationship in which a camera follows the real pregnancy of the lead actors.

Last year brought several important regional successes which we can proudly present in the Together Again program. The year was marked in Croatia by strong women in film, and among them is the absolute winner of Pula, Tereza37 by Danilo Šerbedžija with Lana Barić as the lead actress and scriptwriter. A devastating drama about a woman in her late thirties who decides to change her stale marriage and find her piece of happiness. There is also Mare in which director Andrea Štaka expertly unravels the layers of female identity in a small Croatian town with an exceptional performance by Marija Škaričić, awarded with the Heart of Sarajevo for best actress. Then we have Mater, a story about an anxious and tyrannical relationship between mother and daughter with Darija Lorenci Flatz in the lead role, awarded the Golden Arena in Pula as best actress, while director Jure Pavlović received the award for best debutant. The program also features the new film by Pjer Žalica, a black comedy, Focus, Grandma, in which, as in every decent Balkan family, a fight for inheritance turns into a family war, while the real war is just around the corner, and the breakdown of a family becomes a metaphor for the breakdown of a state.

The best film from the Together Again program is given the Golden Bicycle award, and the audience chooses the winner. Vote for the best from the program and win great prizes:

1^st prize: A 30-film package on the kinoeuropa.hr platform
2^nd prize: A 20-film package on the kinoeuropa.hr platform
3^rd prize: A 10-film package on the kinoeuropa.hr platform

You can vote on the film’s webpage while the film is screened at kinoeuropa.hr. The packages are valid until October 31^st 2021. The lucky winners will be chosen at random and will be notified by e-mail.