23.LFF
Opatija
26.-30.08.2025.

Film

Million dollar baby

LFF15, In competition

ABOUT THE MOVIE

Parents of a 5-year-old girl, Nora Šitum, are told by doctors that their daughter is suffering from terminal leukaemia, Croatian medicine cannot help anymore. Desperate parents, Đana and Ivica, immediately decide to start the last round of the fight for salvation of their daughter. They see her salvation in an experimental treating that's being conducted by an American hospital in Philadelphia. But, before entering the hospital, a sum of nearly one million dollars has to be paid. Đana, willing to remove all obstacles, goes public with it, asking the citizens of Croatia to help her collect the money. In only five days they've collected needed money. But after coming to Philadelphia, they realised - it was to late. After two months, Nora has died. Returning to Croatia, grieving parents consolation found in the fact that with the rest of the money the will help other sick child, to get the treatment on time. But the association that helped them to collect the money, now says that the money has gone. Next four years Nora's parents fought true courts, to get the donated money back to the children of Croatia, for the medical treatment out of their country.

Robert Tomić Zuber

Robert Zuber was born in Pula in 1972. He's been working as a journalist and editor, and he was awarded twice by the Croatian Journalist Society. During the last 8 years he's mostly been doing journalistic work for Croatian Radiotelevision and investigating social and humanitarian topics mostly through his TV show "Mission". Through his career, he started filming documentary films. 2001. he directed his first documentary film, "Na stanici u Puli", which was the most watched documentary in cinemas that year. His second autobiographical documentary, "An Accidental Son", shot as a part of UNICEF's "Every Child Needs A Home" action and received the award Oktavijan for the best documentary of the year on the Days of Croatian Film. The last film he directed, "Mila Seeks Senida" received an award at Sarajevo Film Festival, in the category of human rights. In 2016, after 3 years of being the Commissioning Editor for the documentary programme on HRT he is now a freelancer.

Title: Million dollar baby
Year of production: 2017
Duration: 78
Screenplay: Marjan Alčevski
Photography: Mario Marko Krce
Editing: Sandra Mitić
Sound design: Ivan Zelić
Production: Siniša Juričić
Production company: Nukleus film