Feature-length Croatian documentary flm about the 20-year struggle of artst Boris Bakal to restore, through cooperation and conficts with the local community (co-owners/tenants), an apartment building in Zagreb, a masterpiece of modernist architecture, which thus becomes a metaphor for the entire Croatian/European society, its dynamics, controversies and misconceptions. A hypertextual story about exploring the purpose and futility of individual advocacy for the common good. A story about all of us, about others in us and around us, and the space in between. A movie with a happy ending with a twist.

Screenwriter: Boris Bakal, [Martin Semenčić]
Cinematographers: Adam Luka Turjak, Ante Cvitanović, Bojana Burnać, Bojan Haron Markičević, Boris Bakal, Damjan Nenadić, Danko Vučinović, David Oguić, Davorin Fahn, Dubravka Kurobaša, Filip Tot, Ines Lambert, Jadran Boban, Jasenko Rasol, Katarina Pejović, Lovro Cepelak, Mark Modrić, Rino Barbir, Sandra Uskoković, Plakor Kovačević, Srđan Kovačević, Veno Mušinović, [Vedran Senjanović], Tamara Cesarac, Tomislav Sutlar, Tomaš Kratochvíl

Editor: [Martin Semenčić]
Composer: Stanko Juzbašić
Producer: Boris Bakal, Adrijana Prugovečki, Tibor Keser, Ivan Kelava
Production company: Bačaci Sjenki/Shadow Casters
Year of production: 2023.

* Post-screening Q&A session with Boris Bakal & Szabolcs Tolnai. *

** The screening of Vitić Dances at the Desiré Festival is a premiere screening in Serbia. **

*** Free entry. ***

• • •

Boris Bakal is a theatre/flm director and actor, intermedia artst, curator, writer, educatonist, modernist architecture heritage actvist and public historian born in Zagreb, SFRJ (today Republic of Croata/EU).

Throughout his versatle career he authored numerous projects, performances, lectures, installatons and multmedia creatons in more than 20 states across Europe as well in Asia, Africa and US.

His work is marked, among other, by pronounced exploraton of the site/tme-specifc, architecture and context related and the partcipatve elements of arts and culture. He was visitng scholar/researcher/lecturer at Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium), New York, Stony Brook, Columbia (USA), Exeter, Kent (UK), Alvar Aalto (FI), Victoria (NZ), Chulalongkorn (Thailand), Sydney, Perth (AU) Universites and many others.

He cofounded several artstc and actvist platorms and associatons, e.g. Theatre of Obvious Phenomena (Croata, 1986) Antwar Campaign in Croata (1991), Flying University (Belgium, 1993), Orchestra Stolpnik (Italia, 1996) and Bacači Sjenki/Shadow Casters (Croata, 2001), that has received numerous awards, recognitons and prizes for their work.

He is ArtsLink Fellow, AHCS (Associaton of Critcal Heritage Studies), EEPAP (East European Performance Art Platorm) HZSU (Croatan Associaton of Artsts) and UHA (Croatan Associaton of Architects) member.

Boris is the initator and the founder of the Frooom! flm and media literacy school for children and youth which is being contnuously implemented since 2012 in more then 12 cites in Croata and abroad.

He is also a main initator of the most complex restoraton project of modernist architecture in Croata since the II World War – Condominium block of Natonal Bank by arch Ivo Vitć in Zagreb about which he made a documentary feature movie “Vitć Dances” premiered in 2023 at Zagreb Dox flm festval.

Duration: 01:30

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