Founder’s Story
Lazar Ristovski
/Founder and Festival Director/
After a long wait and a lot of hard work, I've finally managed to achieve my dream – the construction of a new Cultural Center in my beloved Ravno Selo. Thanks to the support we received from the President of the Provincial Government of Vojvodina, Mr. Igor Mirović, our new Cultural Center is now a reality.
Nakon osam godina od strašnog požara koji je uništio prethodni dom, s ponosom mogu najaviti da će se ove godine, 2024., svečano otvoriti novo kulturno srce našeg sela.
The new Cultural Center won't just host the seventh Ravno Selo Film Festival; it'll also provide better conditions for all future cultural activities, Ristovski explains. He adds that RSFF has become known for its original programs, great camaraderie, and the positive energy generated by both the filmmakers and the thousands of viewers who attend the screenings.
Now, with all the resources at our disposal, we'll be able to offer a more extensive and higher-quality program that will satisfy all lovers of film, music, theater, and art in general. This is a great victory for our village and for all of us who believed in the power of culture to enrich our lives and community.
Films serve as a warning, offer support, provide comfort, and teach valuable lessons.
This festival is significant because it brings people together, supports young talent, and brings cultural life to small places like ours. It makes culture accessible to everyone, not just the "chosen few." Film makes you forget your problems for at least an hour or two, or helps you find solutions for them. It allows you to understand the most diverse human behaviors. In a sea of divisions, conflicts due to differences, judgments, and prejudices, I am proud to be part of a profession that largely has the noble intention to understand.
After some films, I've breathed more deeply, spoken with more zest. Film isn't just entertainment. I believe film's purpose is to encourage and illuminate this world, but equally, to touch upon uncomfortable topics to serve as a mirror for us – to see how much has accumulated within us, where we've strayed, where we're self-deceiving. Films are a warning, a support, an embrace, and a lesson. They can articulate our thoughts when we find it hard to think and speak. They can translate feelings we don't know how to explain, sometimes awakening something we didn't even know we could feel. That's the power of a good film.
Ana Lečić
/Face in Focus/
Ana Lečić
/Face in Focus/
Films serve as a warning, offer support, provide comfort, and teach valuable lessons.
This festival is significant because it brings people together, supports young talent, and brings cultural life to small places like ours. It makes culture accessible to everyone, not just the "chosen few." Film makes you forget your problems for at least an hour or two, or helps you find solutions for them. It allows you to understand the most diverse human behaviors. In a sea of divisions, conflicts due to differences, judgments, and prejudices, I am proud to be part of a profession that largely has the noble intention to understand.
After some films, I've breathed more deeply, spoken with more zest. Film isn't just entertainment. I believe film's purpose is to encourage and illuminate this world, but equally, to touch upon uncomfortable topics to serve as a mirror for us – to see how much has accumulated within us, where we've strayed, where we're self-deceiving. Films are a warning, a support, an embrace, and a lesson. They can articulate our thoughts when we find it hard to think and speak. They can translate feelings we don't know how to explain, sometimes awakening something we didn't even know we could feel. That's the power of a good film.
Marko Čkonjević
/Artistic Director/
There are many festivals here, but few have a mission.
A mission is what separates living from merely existing, what gives purpose to existence and significance to work.
This year, our festival is fulfilling its mission with the construction of the Cultural Center, but the responsibility to support youth and talent remains permanent! This is unequivocally evident in the idea to support debutants in its main program and by introducing a new selection for short documentary films, as well as through continuous work with young people via various workshops and lectures. We teach them that film is a collective art form where uniqueness and individuality are nurtured. They learn from us, but we also learn from them.
This festival has realized that young people have come of age and that it's not they who live in our world, but we who live in theirs. It's a world where life is global and where borders are primarily a bureaucratic hindrance. The Ravno Selo Festival doesn't care for borders... it cares for young people who, together with us, are striving to ensure what kind of world we will leave them as a legacy.
Welcome to Ravno Selo and our small, but great festival!
With each passing year, the Ravno Selo Film Festival adds a new dimension to its multidisciplinary approach, dedicating equal attention to experimental, amateur, student, and documentary films, as well as to top-tier professional feature films.
One of the core programs, the feature film selection, also expands its horizons year by year, both in quantity and quality.
The sixth festival will screen a record 10 films over 4 days, with as many as 4 of them being Serbian premieres.
As every year, the selection strikes a balance between the highest-quality foreign films—this time including some of the year's most awarded films—and domestic and regional productions. Among these, the Ravno Selo audience will have the honor of being the first in Serbia to see some of them.
This primarily refers to the debut film of renowned editor Petar Jakonić, "Coma," which addresses one of society's greatest traumas in a very unusual, almost intimate way. It also includes the second film from last year's audience favorite, the talented Nikola Končarević (Jenga), whose new work, "Manja," expands his area of interest by tackling highly relevant topics such as peer violence and teenage depression, while the young Nevena Nerandžić once again delivers a brilliant performance in the titular role.
This group of premiere films also includes the Croatian film "Full Steam Ahead" (Punim plućima), the debut feature by acclaimed cinematographer Radislav Jovanov Gonzo, as well as "Almond and the Seahorse," the collaborative debut by renowned cinematographer Tom Stern and young actor and screenwriter Celyn Jones.
For audience engagement, the festival will feature "Indigo Crystal", the most-watched film in cinemas and the black-and-white debut by Luka Mihailović, at the opening. Closing the festival will be "Trag divljači" (Trail of the Beast), the debut by Nenad Pavlović, which was the best Serbian film of the past year.
„Tiha devojčica“ Kolma Berda i „Posle sunca“ Šarlote Vels, dva su višestruko nagrađivana filma, prikazana na velikom broju festivala tokom 2022. i 2023. dok je „Plavi Kaftan“ Marijam Tuzani prvi matrokanski film na ravnoselskom festivalu.
Last but not least, "Where the Road Leads" (Ovuda će proći put) by Nina Ognjanović, a brilliant debut honored with an award at Slamdance in America, will conclude the sixth festival. As the third film by a female director at the festival, it aligns us with this increasingly noticeable trend in world cinema.
Dragan Jeličić
/Selector/
Dragan Jeličić
/Selector/
With each passing year, the Ravno Selo Film Festival adds a new dimension to its multidisciplinary approach, dedicating equal attention to experimental, amateur, student, and documentary films, as well as to top-tier professional feature films.
One of the core programs, the feature film selection, also expands its horizons year by year, both in quantity and quality.
The sixth festival will screen a record 10 films over 4 days, with as many as 4 of them being Serbian premieres.
As every year, the selection strikes a balance between the highest-quality foreign films—this time including some of the year's most awarded films—and domestic and regional productions. Among these, the Ravno Selo audience will have the honor of being the first in Serbia to see some of them.
This primarily refers to the debut film of renowned editor Petar Jakonić, "Coma," which addresses one of society's greatest traumas in a very unusual, almost intimate way. It also includes the second film from last year's audience favorite, the talented Nikola Končarević (Jenga), whose new work, "Manja," expands his area of interest by tackling highly relevant topics such as peer violence and teenage depression, while the young Nevena Nerandžić once again delivers a brilliant performance in the titular role.
This group of premiere films also includes the Croatian film "Full Steam Ahead" (Punim plućima), the debut feature by acclaimed cinematographer Radislav Jovanov Gonzo, as well as "Almond and the Seahorse," the collaborative debut by renowned cinematographer Tom Stern and young actor and screenwriter Celyn Jones.
For audience engagement, the festival will feature "Indigo Crystal", the most-watched film in cinemas and the black-and-white debut by Luka Mihailović, at the opening. Closing the festival will be "Trag divljači" (Trail of the Beast), the debut by Nenad Pavlović, which was the best Serbian film of the past year.
"The Quiet Girl" by Colm Bairéad and "Aftersun" by Charlotte Wells are two multi-award-winning films, screened at numerous festivals throughout 2022 and 2023. Meanwhile, "The Blue Caftan" by Maryam Touzani is the first Moroccan film to be shown at the Ravno Selo Festival.
Last but not least, "Where the Road Leads" (Ovuda će proći put) by Nina Ognjanović, a brilliant debut honored with an award at Slamdance in America, will conclude the sixth festival. As the third film by a female director at the festival, it aligns us with this increasingly noticeable trend in world cinema.
Igor Toholj
/Selector/
Regardless of the evident youth of the filmmakers in this selection, their maturity and courage in choosing themes, styles, and ideas are what truly define it. Furthermore, these films strongly feature individual/collective memory and maturation as a recurring motif.
We'll present short documentaries that utilize completely different expressive means, from introspective diaries, chronicles, film-essays, to documentary portraits.
In this small segment of a very prolific short documentary film production, intriguing debut films appear, some of which have already achieved international festival success. The documentary opening this year's selection, by Chinese director Shuli Huang, is an unusual essay shot on Super 8 film in an American production, in which he re-examines his maturation and relationship with his mother. In 2022, it was screened at Critics' Week at the Cannes Film Festival, IDFA, and the Hot Docs festival in Toronto. Another film, which shares a type of stylized audiovisual confession and reflection on personal sexual maturation with the aforementioned, is the award-winning My Red Film by Nenad Pržulj, created by the last generation of Atelier Varan attendees.
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