Seventeen Croatian Documentary Premieres at 13th ZagrebDox

Among the 21 Regional Competition titles, nine films are Croatian and eight of them will be having their world premiere at ZagrebDox. Major by Kristijan Milić speaks about the beginning of the Croatian War of Independence from the point of view of the first volunteer battalion acting outside the official Ministry of the Interior armed forces. Composed of memories and thoughts of the commander of the 1st independent Podsused company, the film focuses on the rough part of our recent history, with an accent on the human side of the events. Post-war issues are also in the centre of the films Marathon Men by Biljana Čakić and Two Schools by Srđan Šarenac. Marathon Men is a film about the longest race in Europe, stretching across 227 kilometres between Vukovar and Srebrenica. The protagonists are three war veterans of different nationalities. Running and marathon preparations are their therapy on the road to fighting and healing post-war traumas. Two Schools portray ethnic separation in a high school in Travnik, where Croatian and Bosnian students grow up and attend classes completely separated, and the effort of their principal to introduce and integrate them at school.

Zero Dollar Baby by Damir Terešak is an unusual story about a religion teacher practising professional boxing for several years. Despite being ignored by athletic organisations and institutions, Ivana is fighting for the champion's title in welter category in all four federations. Robert Tomić Zuber, an experienced journalist and editor, is on a quest for a new beginning. His film You Can Be Whatever You Want was made when the author lost his job after a decade and decided to use his personal experience to document the procedures applied to unemployed persons in Croatia.

Unsuccessful Totally by Ljiljana Šišmanović, a documentary portrait of an (un)successful artist, works as an ironic critique of social reality and money as the primary measure of success. The position of unconventional artists in society was also tackled by Silvestar Kolbas from the point of view of street art. His film Simpl features four portraits of graffiti artists, their creative processes, ideas about society and establishing their position. The documentary They Just Come and Go by Boris Poljak is a visual tribute to the Split beach of Bačvice in the early morning hours. The title refers to the protagonists who visit the beach for different purposes.

Goran Dević is presenting two of his projects: Regional Competition will screen his Steel Mill Café, taking us inside a café at the bus station in Sisak, a town that used to boast the largest ironworks in Eastern Europe. The film documents bar talks between the owners before the café closes down forever and they turn a new page. 65+ is a documentary serial a part of which will premiere in special programmes. Three episodes – Another Love, Elections and An Artist Never Retires – document several senior citizens and intriguingly explore the subject of love after a partner's death, political activity and artistic activity in old age.

The last Croatian film in Regional Competition, directed by the last year's winner of the Big Stamp in Regional Competition Đuro Gavran, is another Croatian premiere. Eat Sleep Eat Sleep is a portrait of a Nigerian Ebuka Okeke called Prince, who was forced to leave his country for being a homosexual and who sought asylum in Croatia.

Eight Croatian films will be screened in official festival programmes, five of which will be world premieres and one is a Croatian premiere. The Masters of Dox section presents Every Good Story Is a Love Story, directed by Rajko Grlić and Matjaž Ivanišin, a film about the stage play Boris, Milena, Radko and the four people behind it: writer and director Dušan Jovanović, actress Milena Zupančič, and two actors, Radko Polič and Boris Cavazza.

The Teen Dox section includes two Croatian titles. The premiere of Antun Mazulić's The Confidant, a story about a young law student who wishes to achieve professional accomplishment as a conservative politician. I Regret Nothing by Lucija Strugar is a short documentary portrayal of a young dancer from the island of Vis, an open homosexual, following his integration and life in an isolated community.

Three Croatian premieres are included in the ADU Dox section. Franko Elek – Pictures from the Life of One Immigrant by Silvio Mirošničenko focuses on an elderly Croatian political immigrant who desires to return to his home country. The other two titles are portraits of young protagonists who are trying to find ways to make money: Where To? by Lucija Špegar portrays a taxi driver from Zagreb, and Kika by Mirna Zgrabljić a namesake girl performing a curious night job to raise money for evening classes. Lana Kosovac's Confusions explores the creative process and events behind the scenes of Eurokaz's project with Branko Brezovac in New York City.

The Controversial Dox section hosts the Croatian premiere of Irena Škorić's latest film Unwanted Heritage, about the monuments to the People's Liberation Movement, built in thousands between 1945 and 1990 in the former state, and about people's views on this valuable artistic heritage.

The Retrospective: 20 Years of Factum includes eight titles to the selection of Veton Nurkollari, the artistic director of DokuFest Prizren, who focused on the short form and older titles to introduce younger audiences to Factum's opus. These are: Bag by Dalibor Matanić, Tomislav Rukavina and Stanislav Tomić, Blockade by Igor Bezinović, The Barge Keeperby Silvio Mirošničenko, The Boy Who Rushed by Biljana Čakić, Years of Rust by Andrej Korovljev, I Have Nothing Nice to Say to You by Goran Dević, Drinking Water and Freedom III by Rajko Grlić and Straight A's by Dana Budisavljević.

Special programmes, aside from the already mentioned world premiere of the 65+ serial by Goran Dević, include a brand new section called Mothers and Daughters, about the complex and intriguing relationships between two generations of women in the same family. The section includes one Croatian title, Heritage by Sanja Šamanović, about a mother and a daughter who are forced to live together again after a chance common family pattern.