Image+Nation
BEAUTIFUL EVENING, BEAUTIFUL DAY (LIJEPA VEČER, LIJEP DAN)

BEAUTIFUL EVENING, BEAUTIFUL DAY (LIJEPA VEČER, LIJEP DAN)

IVONA JUKA | CROATIA, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA, CYPRUS, CANADA + POLAND | 2024 | 137 MIN | CROATIAN EST

IVONA JUKA | CROATIA, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA, CYPRUS, CANADA + POLAND | 2024 | 137 MIN | CROATIAN EST

FeatureCOMPETITIONFIRST VOICES

Synopsis

A tight-knit group of revolutionary gay filmmakers in late-1950s former Yugoslavia are shackled by the state to Emir, a communist bureaucrat conditioned to see sabotage everywhere. When the group endeavours to use the Tito regime’s ideological weapons against them, an upended system or the horrors of Barren Island await. Desire—for all of us—can be a heady cocktail. In a society that turns desire inside out, with trust shaken and lover pitted against lover, it becomes a minefield. Dancing cheek to cheek and screwing with abandon turned into revolutionary acts, art a tool for undermining authority. All tactics taken up by professional and romantic partners Lovro (Dado Cosic) and Nenad (Djordje Galic) and their fellow filmmakers (Slaven Doslo, Elmir Krivalic). The four friends determined to savour glimpses of the beautiful lives possible if defense mechanisms could safely fall—a boogie-woogie record; a secluded, seaside house in Istria—as they risk their lives for the cause of freedom. In Croatia’s official submission for the 2025 Academy Awards, the sex is explicit, the stakes and brutality intense, the cinematography stunning. A gutting and rarefied concoction immortalized by writer-director Ivona Juka’s daring cinematic achievement.

Trailer

Filmmaker Bio

Ivona Juka is a Croatian-Montenegrin filmmaker born on March 28, 1975, in Zagreb. She graduated with honors from the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb, where she studied acting and later pursued film directing. Juka gained international recognition with her debut feature, You Carry Me (2015), which premiered at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and won multiple awards, including the Grand Prix at the Zadar Film Festival. Her acclaimed documentary Facing the Day (2006) won the Grand Prix at the Croatian Film Days and was the first Croatian film to win the Heart of Sarajevo award. Juka is a member of the European Film Academy.

Producer

Anita Juka

Writer

Ivona Juka

Cinematographer

Dragan Ruljančić

Cast

  • Emir Hadžihafizbegović
  • Slaven Došlo
  • Dado Ćosić
  • Đorđe Galić
  • Elmir Krivalić
  • Goran Grgić
  • Asja Jovanović
  • Milica Mihajlović
  • Enes Vejzović
  • Vedran Mlikota
  • Marko Braić
  • Anja Šovagović
  • Matija Prskalo
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