National Cinema Initiative:
The Mountain Won’t Move (Gora se ne bo premaknila)

Documentary film premiere
Slovenia, France, North Macedonia, 2025, 91'
By: Petra Seliškar

Cankarjev dom Cinema National Cinema Initiative: The Mountain Won’t Move (Gora se ne bo premaknila)

Screenwriters: Petra Seliškar, Tancrede Riviere
Director of Photography: Brand Ferro
Editing: Laureline Delom, Saško Potter Mičevski
Music: Iztok Koren
Sound Designer: Vladimir Rakić
Production: Petra Pan Film, Cinéphage Productions, PPFP, RTV Slovenia

In 2025, Petra Seliškar first released My Summer Holiday, a short film about an eight-year-old Basri who spends his summer holidays with his older brothers herding sheep high in the Macedonian mountains. Enjoying wild nature in this remote area creates a sense of freedom and respite, despite the challenging tasks of dealing with the cycles of nature and protecting hundreds of sheep threatened by wolves. Once again featuring the three Macedonian brothers, The Mountain Won’t Move focuses on the youngest sibling, Zani, who stays in a lower hut and takes care of the cows. As they grow older, many questions arise in the brothers’ minds, most vitally whether they can manage a sustainable life as shepherds, and what lies ahead for them in their future. Compared to the more intimate My Summer Holiday, The Mountain Won’t Move shows the poetic rhythms of shepherding life against the backdrop of breathtaking mountain landscapes, the dramatic scenery becoming a protagonist in its own right. The city, looming far on the horizon, seems like an unattainable ideal.

In 2017, my friend, Finnish producer Kristiina Pervilä, asked Brand Ferro, who was later the DoP on the film, to help her find working Šarplaninac dogs, also known as Sharr dogs, that she was fascinated with. This is only possible up on the Šar Mountains. Marjan, a breeder and later one of our protagonists, took her on horseback to Solunska Glava, the highest peak. When she came back four days later, by the look on her face I immediately knew there was a story to be told. Actually, not so much a story but a possible way of life that exists so close to ours, and which we know so little about. The Zekirov family are outcasts in their own community. They live an ascetic and traditional life, too much so even for the inhabitants of their home village, Gorno Jabolčište, closest to Solunska Glava. It’s a huge village, with a thousand kids in the school, and at least one member of each family works abroad. They mostly identify as Albanian, while the Zekirov kids aren’t even sure how to spell their name.”
Petra Seliškar

In cooperation with the Slovenian Film Centre

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