“Supporting Role” (courtesy of Allfilm)

During the 30th Sarajevo Film Festival (16-23 August), CineLink, the festival’s industry programme, will present its works in progress. These include eight feature-length films and one documentary from Southeast Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, currently in production or post-production.

Participants include Alisa Kovalenko, who competed in Sarajevo last year with “We Will Not Fade Away,” which also screened at the Berlinale; Adrian Sitaru, who won Best Director at Locarno for “Best Intentions”; Tarik Aktas, who won Best New Director at Locarno for “Dead Horse Nebula”; Ralitza Petrova, who won the Golden Leopard for Best Film at Locarno with “Godless”; Maya Vitkova, who competed at Sundance with “Victoria”; and Ana Urushadze, who won Best Debut Film at Locarno for “Scary Mother.”

The projects are presented to funders, sales agencies, distributors, broadcasters and festival programmers with the aim of accelerating their completion and increasing their distribution opportunities.

Here is the lineup:

“Frontline” (Poland, Ukraine, Denmark)
documentary
Director: Alisa Kovalenko
Production: Kasia Kuczynska
At the heart of the Ukrainian front line, a mother, soldier and filmmaker captures the fragile calm shattered by war, revealing through her dual lens a deeply personal and invisible side of the conflict.

“Harakiri” (Romania)
fiction
Director: Adrian Sitaru, Vlad Popa
Production: Iriana Adnana
“Harakiri” follows two seemingly unrelated stories: one deals with the superficial and critical approach of a television show about suicide, the other deals with love and mental health at home.

“Hear the Yellow” (Türkiye)
fiction
Director: Banu Sivaci
Producers: Yusuf Aslanyürek, Orkun Huylu
When Suna returns to her Anatolian village, she searches for her missing cat. In the process, she uncovers family secrets and finds her way back to her roots.

“Honey Bunny” (Croatia, Serbia)
fiction
Director: Igor Jelinović
Producer: Rea Rajčić
Tonina’s secret attempt to secure a coveted family estate in Hvar disrupts her relationship with her sister Tajana, leading to a visit full of simmering resentment where unspoken tensions reach a head.

“War Edition” (Türkiye)
fiction
Director: Tarik Aktas
Prods: Güneş Şekeroğlu, Tarık Aktaş
War Edition is a dystopian epic journey set in Mesopotamia where Kramnuk, a notorious warrior, seeks to escape the violence and misery he is responsible for.

“Lust” (Bulgaria, Denmark, Sweden)
fiction
Director: Ralitza Petrova
Prods: Poli Angelova, Nikolay Todorov, Ralitza Petrova, Eva Jakobsen, Anna Byvald
When a daughter involuntarily becomes the heir of her estranged father, she just wants to renounce the inheritance and move on with her life. But a near-death experience changes everything.

“It’s my turn!” (Hungary)
fiction
Director: Ge Zhang
Producers: Katalin Csényi, Sissy Cui
The film explores the challenges of separation through the journey of a brother and sister as they attempt to break free from the constraints of tradition, maturity and their own bodies.

“One Month” (Bulgaria)
fiction
Director: Maya Vitkova-Kosev
Production: Maya Vitkova-Kosev
Sarah, an artist who still lives with her parents and has not had a relationship since separating from her fiancé ten years ago, has one month to find a father for her future child in order to keep her life going.

“Supporting role” (Georgia, Estonia, Türkiye)
fiction
Director: Ana Urushadze
Prods: Davit Tsintsadze, Ivo Felt, Sophio Bendiashvili, Bacho Meburishvili, Zeynep Atakan, Andrey Epifanov, Eleonora Granata, Dato Bakhtadze
A retired Georgian film star, accustomed to playing heroic leading roles, embarks on a cathartic odyssey after being offered a supporting role as an unpleasant older man.

Source: Variety