A documentary film about a family secret conceived decades ago on 'an island of broken souls' and a painful past slowly transforming into history.
Some sixty years ago, a man went missing for four years. He returned back a changed man carrying along a painful secret. He later built his family’s life around this unspoken secret. Talking about the past was forbidden in the family. It was his granddaughter, also the director of this film, who first started asking questions, wanting to find out what lay hidden beneath her grandfather’s scar-covered body ever since childhood. However, he died without revealing the entire story to anyone. Naked Island is an investigation built upon the ruins of the past, a mosaic made of clues – family photos and intimate testimonies of a tight-knit group of people who were brought together by the same place, a political prison in ex-Yugoslavia that was also known as an island of broken souls, and consequences that this place left on three generations. At the same time, it is a fascinating portrayal of a moment in which a past can finally become history and a brave documentary defying silence and fear.
WORKSHOPS / PITCHING FORUMS:
Docu Rough Cut Boutique (Sarajevo Film Festival 2012) – DOK.incubator Award
Docs in Thessaloniki (Thessaloniki International Documentary Film Festival)
East European Forum (Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival)
Docs in Progress (International Documentary Film Festival Visions du Réel, Nyon)
FESTIVALS:
Sarajevo Film Festival 2014 - Heart of Sarajevo for best film in Documentary Competition
Dokufest, Prizren 2014
Zagreb Film Festival - Special Mention - Documentary film Competition
UBRZAJ Human Rights Film Festival (Montenegro, 2014)
Verzio Film Festival (Budapest, 2015.)
Trieste International Film Festival - CEI Award (Central European Initiative)
One World International Human Rights Film Festival (Prague, 2015)
ZagrebDox 2015
Sofia International Film Festival - Special Mention (documentary film competition)
Ljubljana Documentary Film Festival 2015 - Amnesty International Award
Belgrade Documentary and Short Film Festival, BFDKF 2015
One World Romania International Human Rights Film Festival (Bucharest, 2015)
Vilinius Film Festival 2015
Go East Festival of Central and Eastern European Film (Wiesbaden, 2015)
World Premieres Film Festival (Phillipines, 2015) - Best Intercontinental Film Award (Best Documentary)
Cinema City (Novi Sad, 2015) - Special Mention; Audience Prize
Pula Film Festival 2015
Festival of Mediteraneean and European Film Trebinje (Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2015)
Liburnia Film Festival (Lučica Ičići, Opatija, 2015) - Best Film; Best Editing
Nancy-Lorraine International Film Festival 2015 - Special Mention of the Jury
Rab Film Festival 2022