'Negotiations with HBO have been ongoing for a long time now, with the first contact established as early as two years ago. Personally, I think that HBO is currently the most important global production company. People at HBO appreciate author documentaries and do not shrink from demanding topics. Fortunately, the love proved to be mutual and we are happy and proud that Srbenka will have its TV premiere just on HBO. As far as I am concerned – it’s as good as it gets.  To my best knowledge, Srbenka is the first Croatian documentary to be shown on HBO and I hope that we have thus broken the ice for other Croatian authors as well.  In view of the quality of documentary production in Croatia, I am confident that we shall not remain alone in their catalogue for a long period of time. However, I hope that this film will also be shown on HTV. We have submitted our tender for its purchase and expect a favourable response. In the meantime, Srbenka continues its journey from one festival to another. In the forthcoming months we shall have a small regional tour including Montenegro, North Macedonia and Kosovo, but the film also goes to farther destinations, such as Thailand, Argentina, Lithuania...', said its director Nebojša Slijepčević on that occasion. 

The documentary film Srbenka follows the preparations and rehearsals for the play “Aleksandra Zec” by Oliver Frljić, produced by HKD Theatre of Rijeka. The film addresses the issues of nationalism and xenophobia, in particular the impact of the Croatian society and public discourse upon lives, in the first place those of children of Serbian nationality born in Croatia years after the end of the Croatian Homeland War.

Srbenka had its world premiere at the festival Visions du Réel in Nyon in March 2018. After the premiere in Nyon, the film won Doc Alliance Award at the Cannes Film Festival. Besides, Srbenka was selected as the best documentary at the 24th edition of the Sarajevo Film Festival and the European Film Academy included it in the list of 15 best European documentaries in 2018. Recently, it also won awards at the festivals in Linz and Warsaw. 

This Nebojša Slijepčević’s film has been produced by Restart, the producer is Vanja Jambrović and the editor is Tomislav Stojanović. Besides Slijepčević, camera work was done by Bojan Mrđenović and Iva Kraljević, sound mixing and editing by Tihomir Vrbanec and Ivan Zelić. Executive producers are Rea Rajčić and Tibor Keser. The film has been financially supported by the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, the cities of Rijeka and Zagreb and MEDIA sub-programme.

Cover photo: a scene from the film Srbenka