Image+Nation
SANDBAG DAM (ZEČJI NASIP) (FR)

SANDBAG DAM (ZEČJI NASIP) (FR)

ČEJEN ČERNIĆ ČANAK | CROATIA, LITHUANIA + SLOVENIA | 2025 | 87 MIN | CROATIAN FST

ČEJEN ČERNIĆ ČANAK | CROATIA, LITHUANIA + SLOVENIA | 2025 | 87 MIN | CROATIAN FST

FeatureCOMPETITIONFIRST VOICES

Synopsis

CROATIAN • FRENCH ST | Marko, slight but mighty, seems always in control, always a champion—but what happens when he slips his banks? As “unstable air” portends torrential rains for a small Croatian village, the return of Marko’s former neighbour is the rush that might pull him under. Marko (Lav Novosel in a natural, understated performance) has a full life: a brother with Down syndrome (Leon Grgić) who he treats with a soft attentiveness; learning discipline from his father (Filip Šovagović) in the lead up to an arm-wrestling competition; chanting about female anatomy with his buds before pestering his girlfriend Petra (Franka Mikolaci) for sex. But there’s another side to his even-keeled bravado. For, as he tells his brother in the guise of a story, “the boy and the bunny” were once “inseparable,” with a secret hiding place of their own. And now that “bunny” is back. Home from cosmopolitan Berlin for his father’s funeral, Slaven (Andrija Žunac) catches Marko off guard. Despite training constantly as if to outrun his feelings, Marko returns again and again to the river, again and again to Slaven. An imported joint is shared, affections are renewed, and temperatures—and waters—rise.

Trailer

Filmmaker Bio

Čejen Černić Čanak is a Croatian director and screenwriter born in Osijek in 1982. She graduated in Film and TV Directing from the Zagreb Academy of Dramatic Art. Černić Čanak has directed several short fiction and documentary films, including The Girl Who Loved Fairy Tales (2014) and The Mystery of Green Hill (2017), which won the Breza Award for Best Debutant at the Pula Film Festival. Her latest feature, Sandbag Dam (Zečji nasip, 2025), premiered at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival and was nominated for the Teddy Award for Best Feature Film.

Producer

Ankica Jurić Tilić, Dragan Jurić, Hrvoje Pervan

Writer

Tomislav Zajec

Cinematographer

Marko Brdar

Cast

  • Lav Novosel
  • Andrija Žunac
  • Leon Grgić
  • Franka Mikolaci
  • Tanja Smoje
  • Alma Prica
  • Filip Šovagović
  • Luka Baškarad
  • Radoslava Mrkšić
  • Marica Vidušić
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