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Film ''The Same'' – the best documentary at 32nd Festival of Cinema in Herceg Novi!
At the closing ceremony of 32nd Festival of Cinema in Herceg Novi – Montenegro Film Festival held at Kanli Kula Fortress on August 7th, Zlatna Mimoza award was given to Dejan Petrović, the director of ''The Same''.
Film ''The Same'' directed by Dejan Petrović won ZLATNA MIMOZA AWARD FOR THE BEST DOCUMENTARY at 32nd Festival of Cinema in Herceg Novi. The award went for ''the fresh and distinctive author’s style and ingenious use of documentary film so as to create a brilliant metaphor for the destiny of man and real meaning of the concepts of freedom and identity'' – it was stated by the jury whose members were Jin Huaqing – a film director from China, Senad Šahmanović – a director from Montenegro and Zofia Kovalevska – a director form Poland and Grand Prix winner at last year’s Festival of Cinema in Herceg Novi for the best documentary called ''Closed Ties'' that was on the shortlist for Oscar nominees.
There were 29 selected documentaries by the authors from Portugal, Croatia, Iran, Mexico, Great Britain, Kazakhstan, Germany, Spain, Moldova, France, Tunisia, Palestine, Switzerland, Norway, Turkey, Finland, Ukraine, Austria, Poland, Romania, Belgium, Italy, Bangladesh, Sweden, China, Canada, India, Russia and Serbia.
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"The Same" won the Grand Prix in Egypt
Film "The Same" directed by Dejan Petrović won the Grand Prix for the best short documentary at 20th Ismailia International Film Festival in Egypt. The award was handed to the director at the closing ceremony in Ismailia on Tuesday, April 17th 2018.
Besides "The Same" in category short documentary, there were 12 more films from Iran, Denmark, the USA, Poland, Spain, Turkey, France, Syria, Egypt, India and Japan.
The festival took place April 11-17th 2018 in Ismailia, not far from Cairo and was organized by the International Film Center of Egypt and supported by the Ministry of Culture of Egypt.
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"The Same" at the film festival in Egypt
"The Same" directed by Dejan Petrović was premiered in Serbia at 65th March Festival (Belgrade Documentary and Short Film Festival) and won the Grand Prix for the best short documentary. It is also to be screened at 20th Ismailia International Film Festival in Egypt soon.
Besides "The Same" in category short documentary, there are 12 more films from Iran, Denmark, the USA, Poland, Spain, Turkey, France, Syria, Egypt, India and Japan.
The festival takes place April 11-17th 2018 in Ismailia, not far from Cairo on the left bank of the Suez Canal and it is organized by the International Film Center of Egypt. In addition to the competition program, there are other programs as well.
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Two awards for "The Same" at 65th March Festival
The best films in competition program were awarded on Sunday, April 1st 2018 at the closing ceremony of 65th Belgrade Documentary and Short Film Festival (March Festival).
The festival jury made up of Robert Zuber – director and journalist, Dragan Jovićević – writer, journalist and film critic and Srđan Šarenac – director, screen writer and producer, awarded the Grand Prix to "The Same", by Dejan Petrović. "His unique visual storytelling in filmmaking, the director of this great accomplishment gives us the access to lives of people on the margins of society. By his unique dramaturgical and film approach to not so typical relationship between the prisoners and the government, the director guides us through the film so as to feel that these people are equal" – it was stated in support of jury’s decision.
"Living Pictures" Production Company awarded Dejan Petrović, director of "The Same" a €2,000 special prize to be invested in post-production services for his next film.
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After the World Premiere at IDFA and Regional Premiere at ZagrebDox, Film “The Same” at Belgrade Documentary and Short Film Festival
Documentary film The Same by Dejan Petrović is having its home premiere at 65th Belgrade Documentary and Short Film Festival that takes place from March 28th to April 1st 2018.
After the world premiere at the prestigious 30th International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam (IDFA) in November last year and its regional premiere at 14th International Documentary Film Festival ZagrebDox in March this year, The Same is going to be screened in the short documentary competition program at this year’s festival on Friday, March 30th 2018 at 4 p.m. at Belgrade Youth Center, Big hall.
The Same is a film that shows the everyday life of convicts and jailers in some of the biggest jails in Serbia by using it as a metaphor to present the loss of personal identity in modern society. This documentary compares a jail system to fixed social rules and raises questions about the relativity of human freedom. It was filmed in Penal Correctional Facilities in Sremska Mitrovica, Požarevac (Zabela), Niš and Penal Correctional Facility for Women in Požarevac, with the financial support of Film Center Serbia and the help of Directorate for Enforcement of Criminal Sanctions.
Sunrise is yet another documentary produced by Požega Independent Film Center Filmart that is in competition program of this year’s festival. It was directed by Javier Extremera Rodriguez and filmed in Čačak during 12th International Student Film Camp Interaction. The story is about people who work at night while everyone else is asleep feeling safe. This observational documentary of a young man from Spain is going to be screened on Saturday, March 31st 2018 at 3 p.m. at Belgrade Youth Center, Big hall.
In competition program of this year’s festival, there are 80 short fiction and documentary films, feature length documentaries, animated and experimental films. Film screenings, workshops, post screenings Q&As, conversations with the authors and people connected to the film industry are all planned during the festival.
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Regional premiere of the film “The Same” in Zagreb
After the world premiere at the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam (IDFA), documentary film “The Same” by Dejana Petrovića is having its regional premiere during 14th International Documentary Film Festival ZagrebDox that takes place in Zagreb from February 25th to March 4th 2018.
The film is going to be shown at the Kaptol Boutique Cinema on Thursday, March 1st and on March 2nd two screenings are planned as well as the post-screening Q&As with the film director.
Of 1,386 documentaries that have been submitted this year, 38 are going to be shown in the international and regional competition programs. Apart from “The Same”, there are also 16 films in the regional competition.
Besides the competition program, ZagrebDox regularly has other programs too: Biography Dox, Musical Globe, Happy Dox, Contraversial Dox, Masters of Dox, State of Affairs, Teen Dox and ADU DOX. Dox Special includes Restart’s School of Documentary Film and “In Focus: New Europe”. This year ZagrebDox dedicates Retrospetives to Claire Simon, a French film director and Boris Poljak, a Croatian documentary film director and professional DOP.
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World premiere of the film “The Same” on the world’s most important documentary film festival
Documentary film “The Same”, by Dejan Petrovic, will have it’s world’s premiere in the competition programme on the most important and biggest festival of documentary film in the world, that will be held for the 30th jubilee time, from the 15th until the 26th of November in Amsterdam (IDFA 2017).
“The Same” is a short documentary film (16 min) that, in a unique way, shows everyday life of prisoners and guards in several major jails in Serbia. It’s extraordinary photography and unique poetics gives a view of life in jail that has never been portrayed in domestic documentary films before. This was recognized by the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam – IDFA, that selected the film “The Same” in the competition programme, in the category of short documentary film.
The fact that the last authors from Serbia participated in the competition programme of the festival in Amsterdam six years ago (Goran Radovanovic with “With Fidel to the end” and Srdjan Keca “A letter to my father”), show how big of a success this is for domestic film. In the 30 years of the festival, there were only 9 documentaries from domestic authors screened.
“The Same” is a film of metaphor, that deals with the theme of loosing ones identity under the influence of the system, shown through life in prison. This documentary explores the relativity of human freedom, setting a parallel between the prison system, and the wider society system.
Thanks to the support of the Administration for the Execution of Criminal Sanctions of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Serbia, the film was shot in the penitentiary institutions in Sremska Mitrovica, Požarevac, Niš, as well as the penitentiary institution for women in Požarevac.
The director and the screenwriter of the film is Dejan Petrović, director of photography - Dragan Vildović, editor - Aleksandar Popović, sound designer - Nikola Cvijanović, composer - Vojin Ristivojević. The Independent film centre “Filmart” is the production company behind this film, and it is co-produced by Cinnamon Films.
You can find the trailer for the film on this link.
“The Same” was filmed with the support of Film Center Serbia (supported on a contest by FCS for financing and co-financing the production of short documentary films).
Apart from the film “The Same”, the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam also decided to show the film “The other side of everything” by Mila Turajlić in the category of feature documentary competition programme, as well as the film “Sweet nothing” by Boris Mitić in the non-competition programme “Masters”.
Dejan Petrović is the screenwriter and director of several short feature and documentary films, as well as a large number of promotional films, commercials and music videos, and a number of TV shows. As a producer, he participated in producing about forty documentaries. He is the founder and owner of the Independent Film Centre “Filmart” , which realizes several projects, including the International Student Film Camp “Interaction”. He is a professor of directing on the Academy of Arts in Belgrade, and also a member of the DocSerbia Association - Documentaries of Serbia. He is the winner of several awards from film festivals, the Golden Medal of Belgrade for the best screenplay on the 62nd Belgrade Festival of documentary and short film, for his film “Restart”, among others.
Important online addresses:
• “The Same” documentary film website - www.thesame.rs
• Independent Film Centre “Filmart” - www.film-art.org
• IDFA - www.idfa.nl