ABOUT THE MOVIE
Željko is the head of the Gredelj Wagon Factory trade union. His deputy Mladen committed suicide after large public protests and conflicts within the trade union. Željko is torn between the guilt he feels over Mladen's death and the expectation of the workers to lead a strike that should set back the government's EU-ordered plans to send the company into bankruptcy. The story that this film deals with is a paradigmatic story of Croatia, but also of other Eastern European transition countries. The workers who responded to the front lines of the national counter-revolutions, and who in most cases fought for those nations in the war, became the losers of the transition with the return of peace. Active in dismantling the old, the protagonists of this film failed to build a new society. This is a film about fighters and workers, dreamers and revolutionaries, union leaders and bankruptcy trustees, a film about the unprotected right to work.
Goran Dević
was born in Sisak, Croatia, in 1971. He studied law, archaeology and film art at Academy of Dramatic Art, University of Zagreb, Croatia. His filmography includes several documentaries and short films. Teaches documentary film at the Academy of Dramatic Arts. He is the author of award-winning documentary films: On The Water (2018), The Steel Mill Café (2017), 65+ (2016), Two Furnaces for Udarnik Josip Trojko (2012), Don Juan: Excuse Me, Miss (2010), The Flood (2010), Happy Land (2009), Three (2008), I Have Nothing Nice to Say to You (2005), Imported Crows (2004) and others. Film The Blacks (2009), which he codirected, was his feature film debut also woon grand prix Ljubljana Film Festival Slovenia 2009; grand prix Festival autorskog filma Serbia 2009; FIPRESCI award Cottbus Film Festival Germany 2009; special award for directing Cottbus Film Festival Germany 2009; Golden Arena for directing Pula Film Festival Croatia 2009;Retrospectives of his documentaries were screened at ARSENAL CINEMA, Institute for Film (Berlin) and Crossing Europe Filmfestival (Linz), BELDOX (Belgrade), ZAGREBDOX (Croatia) i MAXII, the National Museum of 21st Century Art (Rome).
