Three Factumentaries await world premieres

It seems that completing and releasing three films in one year is not an exception for Factum. After such an undertaking last year, another one is in the works this year! No wonder, because Factum is the oldest and one of the most important Croatian independent documentary productions. In its almost 30 years of existence, it has made more than 90 documentaries that have been shown at about a hundred festivals and have won a number of prestigious international and national awards.

Director Ivan Ramljak is known for his unique approach to historical themes, and his new film Peacemaker will have its world premiere at ZagrebDox. In 1991, on the road between Osijek and Tenja, Josip Reihl Kir, the chief of police of the Osijek Police Department, a man dedicated to negotiations and avoiding war, was killed. This film is the story of the last few months of his life at the dawn of the bloody Croatian-Serbian war, which Kir tried with all his might to prevent, told through the statements of a dozen witnesses of the time and archival materials. Even today, after more than thirty years, many elements of that murder remain unexplained, and the possible perpetrators are unknown.

The documentary I'll Find You, directed by Justina Matov, will also have its world premiere at ZagrebDox. The young filmmaker begins a search for her father, whom she knew for only two months and whom no one has ever talked about, even though he was a famous musician, once the guitarist of the legendary band Parni Valjak. As she tries to fill the void her father left behind, unresolved family problems come to the surface, and she learns that she is pregnant. The film is about travel, searching, finding, but above all about loves that have been found, but also those for which it is too late.

Lidija Špegar's film Underground Top of the Charts talks about music in a very specific context, music at funerals, where sadness dominates, reaching its peak when we say goodbye to the deceased. Music definitely plays an important role in dealing with grief and it is almost impossible to imagine saying goodbye to loved ones without it. Following musicians across Croatia, the film shows the diversity of funeral practices, but also the musical genres that accompany them and which have changed over time, so that, in a way, this film does, it is possible to compile entire top lists.