BETWEEN YOUR COUNTRY AND YOUR DREAM, WHICH ONE WOULD YOU CHOOSE?

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1 BETWEEN YOUR COUNTRY AND YOUR DREAM, WHICH ONE WOULD YOU CHOOSE? feature documentary in development theatrical version 90 min, TV version 52 min, HD release date: Samaljot Production, Brace Grim 20, Belgrade, Serbia, Red Production, Jelene Cetkovic 12, Belgrade, Serbia,

Belgrade, Kosovo, feature documentary in development THE SYNOPSIS Paris, France. We meet Petar, the world champion in playing accordion and the passionate cyclist.

Now, he decides to meet Serbia in full scale he will cycle from north to south, from the capital of Belgrade to the divided city of Kosovska Mitrovica in Kosovo. Belgrade, Serbia.

As we follow his journey and encounters he makes, the grotesque, sad, funny, sober, true picture of Serbia today unfolds in front of us.

Kosovska Mitrovica, Kosovo. The road abruptly finishes with the road barricade at the bridge dividing Serbs and Albanians. Petar sums up what he saw.

THE CHARACHTERS Dusan, the auto-scrap owner, who dreams of modifyinig an old military airplane into a posh caffe on the Highway and, by doing so, to abandon poorly paid job of selling old auto parts

She sings every night in front of drunk and agressive guests since she was 14, and dreams of becoming mainstream folk singer in Serbia.

2 Belgrade, Kosovo, feature documentary in development THE SYNOPSIS Paris, France. We meet Petar, the world champion in playing accordion and the passionate cyclist. It was some time ago that he left his country of birth, Serbia. He is one of young people that left Serbia in the last deacde because of wars, poverty, isolation, and lack of perspective. Now, he decides to meet Serbia in full scale he will cycle from north to south, from the capital of Belgrade to the divided city of Kosovska Mitrovica in Kosovo. Belgrade, Serbia. Petar, with the accordion and on his bycicle, hits the Ibarska Highway, the most frequent and the most important two lanes road that connects the north to the south of Serbia and it s 309km long. As we follow his journey and encounters he makes, the grotesque, sad, funny, sober, true picture of Serbia today unfolds in front of us. Each person Petar meets along the Highway represents a story of big dreams and lost perspectives of so-called small people in the country in a transition from a violent past to the EU future. Kosovska Mitrovica, Kosovo. The road abruptly finishes with the road barricade at the bridge dividing Serbs and Albanians. Petar sums up what he saw. Are there any reasons for him to come back to Serbia? Is there a new hope or just old hostilities and distroying bitterness? Is the Highway a road to nowhere or a possibilty for a new start? THE CHARACHTERS Dusan, the auto-scrap owner, who dreams of modifyinig an old military airplane into a posh caffe on the Highway and, by doing so, to abandon poorly paid job of selling old auto parts to his empoverished countrymen. Violeta, the singer at dirty and dark restaurants along the Highway. She sings every night in front of drunk and agressive guests since she was 14, and dreams of becoming mainstream folk singer in Serbia. Stojanka, old lady from the totally abandoned village by the Highway where she is the only inhabitant left. Mico, the owner of the restaurant that struglles with the new EU regulations he doesn't see the point of, imposed on his buisness by the Serbian goverment eager to join the Union. Alan, the Gypsy musician from the brass orchestra that plays at the anual carneval of funny boats on the Ibar river alongside the Highway. He can't swim and every year at this carneval playing the trumpet becomes a struggle to beat the fear and stay on the boat with drunk people, just to earn something for a living. 2

Belgrade, Kosovo, feature documentary in development Miroslav, professor from the local high school and organizer of the testical cooking championship with the idea to bring Barack Obama at the event

Halko, worker who nails down his own hand to the table at the factory where he worked all his life in a desparate attempt to save the company from a new tycoon boss.

We will see their everyday lives and try to understand their hopes.

3 Belgrade, Kosovo, feature documentary in development Miroslav, professor from the local high school and organizer of the testical cooking championship with the idea to bring Barack Obama at the event and give him a prize for having the gutts. Halko, worker who nails down his own hand to the table at the factory where he worked all his life in a desparate attempt to save the company from a new tycoon boss. Bojana, who lives iin Kosovo but doesn't recognize Kosovo idenpendece and smuggles here and there for a living, dreaming of a regular life in some other country. We will see their everyday lives and try to understand their hopes. We will observe their moments of joy and desperation, hear their views on past, politics, identity, future, life, and happiness and witness their struggle to survive. They spent all of their lives by the Highway, and the Highway makes their stories unique. The storyline gives us the feeling of the endless same routine, but the unsettling moments of the characters revelations move the story forward and give it a new grip. This is a social documentary that deals with lives beyond geopolitics. THE TREATMENT Petar is our guide through out the Highway. We hear his voice over, which represent his thoughts. He discusses the notion of time while driving. He contemplates the similarity of playing the accordion and driving a bike. He comments on what he sees as reasons for decay of his country. Although he is not present in every scene of the movie, the film is his point of view. As Petar drives by some places alongside the Ibarska Highway, we stop to tell the story of the character living there. Taking place next to the road connects the stories. They are put in a dramaturgical order that slowly evolves, building up the feeling of lives that constantly miss the chances. Camera is everywhere where our character goes, in hand, following. We keep the cinema verite style of observing the situations. Our characters do their everyday jobs, chat with friends, repair their cars, cook meals, have a drink in a local pub etc. We will use those small talks and interactions at different places to build the picture of their lives, to get their thoughts and viewpoints, to understand their relationships and hopes. There will be no classic interviews. The editing will not interfere with the action, it will just stress to the most important moments: dirty pans, dirty cuts, jump cuts etc. The sounds of the Highway will always be present in the background. Static shots of the chaos and beauty of the landscape around the Highway will be small breaks as well as moments to contemplate the character-driven episodes. They will make out of the Highway itself a character of this movie, giving the road symbolic meaning. 3

Belgrade, Kosovo, feature documentary in development DIRECTOR S AND PRODUCER S CV Marko Popovic (director and co-producer) Born in 1975.

Completed documentary workshops at the Venice Film Festival in 2006, HotDocs' DocLab workshop in 2007 in Toronto and Zelig Academy's (Italy) workshop of European Social Documentary.

Documentary feature Echo won the Special Jury Prize at 13th Sarajevo Film Festival, and documentary Ivan won Vogelsong Award at Kosice Festival.

4 Belgrade, Kosovo, feature documentary in development DIRECTOR S AND PRODUCER S CV Marko Popovic (director and co-producer) Born in He studied film and television direction at the Film Academy in Prague (FAMU), and the Faculty of Drama Arts (FDU) in Belgrade. Completed documentary workshops at the Venice Film Festival in 2006, HotDocs' DocLab workshop in 2007 in Toronto and Zelig Academy's (Italy) workshop of European Social Documentary. Directed television documentaries, documentaries and short fiction films. Documentary feature Echo won the Special Jury Prize at 13th Sarajevo Film Festival, and documentary Ivan won Vogelsong Award at Kosice Festival. Other documentaries were shown at festivals in Prague, Toronto, Graz, Paris, Zagreb, Warsaw, and Glasgow... He established the Free Zone Belgrade Film Festival and was Festival's program manager for three years. Milos Djukelic (producer) Born in Belgrade Graduate from Faculty of Drama Arts in Belgrade, film and TV directing. Since he has been working as director, producer, copywriter and art director. He took part and won prizes on numerous international festivals with his commercials and short films: Magdalena, Leo Burnett 7+, Karlovy Vary, MTV music award, etc Lately he has been working more and more on art projects as director of Ohridska legenda which is whole evening musical and as producer of internationally awarded documentary Bajne vile as well as Ivan Ikic s Tarot Srbija. He is a founder of Red Production, which is well-known commercial and film production house throughout Europe. Samaljot Production is a company for the production of movies, TV program, multimedia content for different events and all other audio-visual works. The company was founded in November 2010 and since then it produced movies and promos for AlJazeera Arabic, B92 TV station in Serbia, CARE International, Museum of Yugoslav History, different governmental agencies and private businesses. Red is a production company that advertising agencies and other production companies hire to realize their advertising and/or artistic projects. Among their clients are Leo Burnett, TBWA, BBDO, SVA, New Moment, Ovation etc. It also produced two feature documentaries ( Tarot Serbia and Bajne vile ) and art project Ohridska legenda. 4

5 Belgrade, Kosovo, feature documentary in development BUDGET SUMMARY (ALL COSTS ARE IN EUR) A. IDEA & SCRIPT 4.000,00 B. PRE-PRODUCTION ,00 C. PRODUCTION CREW ,00 D. EQUIPMENT ,00 E. TRANSPORT AND TRAVEL 9.500,00 F. ACCOMODATION 7.800,00 G. VIDEO POST PRODUCTION ,00 H. AUDIO POST PRODUCTION & MUSIC 8.500,00 I. INSURANCE AND ASSISTANCE 7.240,00 J. OFFICE COSTS 4.860,00 I. OVERHEAD (7%) 8.735,00 SUB TOTAL ,00 TAXES ,00 GRAND TOTAL ,00 FINANCING PLAN (ALL IN EUR) FILM CENTER SERBIA FUND TV BROADCASTERS, CO - PRODUCTIONS, PRE - SALES OWN RESOURCES ,00 SEEKING ,00 SEEKING 8.225,00 CONFIRMED BELGRADE CITY COUNCIL FUND ,00 SEEKING SERBIAN PUBLIC TV 5.000,00 SEEKING TOTAL ,00 5

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