Kinotrip Award Winner:
Sandbag Dam (Zečji nasip)

Screening of the winning film

Cankarjev dom Cinema Sandbag Dam (Zečji nasip)

A story of forbidden love in the Croatian countryside, where the boundaries of tolerance are too narrow for a tumultuous youthful romance.

Marko lives in a Croatian village with his parents and his young brother Fićo. Although a gifted athlete, he will respect his father's wish and become a car mechanic after finishing school. Two events throw Marko's seemingly stable life out of balance: the village is threatened by flooding, and his forbidden first love, Slaven, returns home for his father's funeral. Marko struggles to stay focused on his girlfriend Petra and an upcoming sporting tournament. While the villagers work tirelessly to build sandbag walls around their homes, Marko builds a wall of his own - one designed to keep his emotions at bay.

This is a story about forbidden love between two young men in a small village in Croatia, and Croatia is still a very closed-minded country. I wasn't aware of it before I started working on the film. We live in our own bubbles, thinking that tolerance and acceptance are a given; that's not true. When we started auditions, I met many young people and said to them: 'If you have any issues with the subject of the movie, let me know.' Many of them did. I realised that being gay in Croatia makes you feel threatened.
Čejen Černić Čanak

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