19/08/2015 - Cineuropa previews some of the projects taking part in the Sarajevo Film Festival's CineLink co-production market

The Sarajevo Film Festival's co-production market, which will take place from 19-22 August, consists of two strands: Works in Progress, which is designed for films in post-production (read the story here), and CineLink, which presents the most promising regional feature projects at the development and financing stage. 

This year, the selection includes 14 regional projects, plus three guest projects from Qatar, Syria and Russia. Cineuropa previews the most interesting of these 17.

One of Bosnia's most prominent directors, Aida Begić (Snow [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], Children of Sarajevo [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Aida Begić
film profile]), will present A Ballad. It is a story of a mythical couple, Fatima Pintorovic and Hasan Arapovic, who divorce under strange circumstances and due to unclear reasons. The divorce will lead one of them to death and leave their five children as orphans. As they attempt to discover the real reason behind Fatima and Hasan’s divorce, the children share the moving stories of their own lives. Adis Djapo is producing through Film House Sarajevo.

Turkish writer-director-producer Erol Mintaş, who won the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Film last year with Song of My Mother [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Erol Mintaş
film profile], returns to the festival with Crows. It tells the story of Adem, a 35-year-old man who attempts to find a cure for his illness through Seyda, an old wise man who lives in the mountain. Then he gets a job transporting people to Seyda's place, and one day he is entrusted with a large sum of money to be distributed to the visitors according to certain rules. Crows is a production by Mintaş Film.

Another Turkish filmmaker who is well known in Sarajevo, Huseyin Karabey (My Marlon and Brando, Come to My Voice [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Hüseyin Karabey
film profile]), is bringing Hamarat Apartment,a co-production between Turkey's Asi Film and Germany's Neue Mediopolis Filmproduktion. It is a political drama/thriller based on a true story about the hostage crisis in the Israeli consulate in Istanbul in 1970, when a guerilla unit led by popular student leader Mahir Cayan kidnapped intelligence officer Eprahim Elrom. 

Another Sarajevo returnee is Greek writer-director Dimitris Bavellas, whose Runaway Day [+see also:
trailer
film profile] was in competition at the festival in 2013. His new project, In the Strange Pursuit of Laura Durand, is a story about two friends down on money who are fascinated by Laura Durand, a porn star from the 1990s who disappeared mysteriously several years ago. After a couple of bad twists in their lives, a vision of Laura appears before them, and they decide to go on a quest to find her. The film is a co-production between Greek companies Vox Productions and Two Thirty Five. 

Georgian writer-director Tinatin Kajrishvili (Brides [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Tinatin Kajrishvili
film profile]) is attending with Manji, the story of a young, newly married couple, Manji and Anka, who love each other very much – but everybody is against their relationship. They live together with Anka's parents, as they won't allow her to take her son away. At one point, Manji has to move to a village owing to a conspiracy between Anka's mother and Guram, a suitor to Anka whom her mother adores. Manji is a production by Gemini. 

The Son by Bosnian writer-director Ines Tanović, who is in Sarajevo competition this year with Our Everyday Life [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ines Tanović
film profile], tells the story of two brothers, Arman and Dado. Arman was adopted because his parents couldn't conceive a child, but four years later they managed to, with the mother then giving birth to Dado. Family matters are further complicated when Arman strikes up a relationship with a girl from the Serbian part of Sarajevo. Alem Babić is producing through Dokument Sarajevo.

Serbian-born and Bucharest-based filmmaker Ivana Mladenović, who won the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Documentary in 2012 with Turn Off the Lights [+see also:
trailer
film profile], is bringing her first feature film, The Soldiers, co-written with Adrian Schiop and produced by Ada Solomon through her outfit Hi Film. It is the story of 35-year-old Adi who, after a break-up with his girlfriend, moves to the most notorious Bucharest neighbourhood, Ferentari, in order to write his PhD thesis on manele, contemporary Roma music led by underground bosses of illegal businesses.

The full list of projects can be found here and here.