Tuesday, July 14, 11 – 11:30am, Kino Valli
Language: Croatian
Cooperation with drame.hr – presentation of finalists
In cooperation with drame.hr, the finalists of the call for plays with potential to be adapted into a feature film screenplay will be presented. As part of the Festival, the authors will present their plays at a pitching event with the goal of making connections with producers, directors, and other film professionals. The plays were selected by a three-member jury: director Snježana Tribuson, playwright and editor at drame.hr Lana Šarić, and producer at drame.hr Mirta Puhlovski. This programme aims at achieving future cooperation with producers and directors, as well as further development and work on projects.
The workshops in this programme will be held online and in person during Pula Film Festival, with mentorship from editors and producers of drame.hr, and with the aim of preparing the participants for the pitching at Pula PRO, where one of the authors will receive a prize to support their further work on adapting the play into a feature film screenplay.
PROJECTS
THE TITLE, Vanja Jovanović i Petra Pleše
Marija Antoaneta za ovo nema vremena – Sanja Milardović
Suza za umjetno oko – Ružica Gašperov
THE TITLE, Vanja Jovanović i Petra Pleše
The drama Naslov takes place one hour after a fourteen-year-old boy from a wealthy family kills a schoolmate during class and flees the scene. An attorney representing his family—also a godfather and close family friend—approaches a well-known journalist with an offer of an exclusive interview, their first public statement following the tragedy. The journalist, who has spent years investigating the family’s
business dealings and their country’s largest meat-processing industry, agrees to meet them at one of their facilities.Through preparations for the interview and the family’s reactions, a dysfunctional dynamic is gradually revealed in which the boy was an “unproblematic” straight-A student, overlooked precisely because of his apparent perfection. The tragedy raises questions of individual and systemic responsibility, as well as the role of socioeconomic status, power, and the media in shaping public judgment. As the interview becomes a media and moral trigger, sensationalism and public lynching begin to dictate the course of events, and the family loses control over its own narrative. In the end, all are confront
ed with the same question: where does family responsibility end and where does societal responsibility begin—and does truth even stand a chance of surviving in the media space?
Petra Pleše was born in 2001 in Karlovac, Croatia, where she completed general secondary school and music school (guitar major). She is a second-year graduate student of Theatre Dramaturgy at the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb. She writes screenplays, plays, and theoretical and critical texts in the fields of performing arts and film. Her critical and theoretical work has been published on the portals Kulturpunkt and Zona filma, as well as in the journal Kazalište. As a dramaturg and author, she has collaborated with
directors Vanja Jovanović (Mala zabava, Teatar &TD, 2022; Čudni kovačev sin, Branko Mihaljević Children’s Theatre, 2025; Autorizacija, Youth Theatre Novi Sad, 2026), Ivan Plazibat (Kad se zaljubljujemo, Croatian National Theatre Ivan pl. Zajc, 2024), Zdenko Šustić (Mali požari, Mala scena, 2024), and Peđa Gvozdić (A.jmo P.robat Čehov.a, Zorin Dom City Theatre, 2020).
Vanja Jovanović was born in 1993 in Osijek, Croatia, where he completed primary and secondary school. After finishing vocational secondary school for construction in 2011, he enrolled at the Academy of Arts in Osijek, specializing in acting and puppetry, from which he graduated with an MA in 2017. Since 2016, he has been employed as an actor/puppeteer at the City Puppet Theatre Rijeka. In 2018, he enrolled in the MA program in Theatre Directing and Radio Arts at the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb. As a director, he has so far worked professionally in numerous theatres, including GK Požega, GKL Rijeka, GKL Zadar, Teatar Puna kuća, GDK Gavella, Kazalište Virovitica, Teatar &TD, GK Zorin dom, KD Pinklec, KC Osijek, Teatar Rugantino, HNK Zadar, Empiria Teatar, LK Mostar, DPRS Banja Luka, HNK Varaždin, HNK Osijek, DKBM Osijek, ZKL, and the Youth Theatre Novi Sad.
MARIE ANTOINETTE HAS NO TIME FOR THIS, Sanja Milardović
Just before the dress rehearsal of a new production, news breaks that its Director has been accused of abusing younger actresses and acting students. The theatre falls apart in panic: management scrambles to issue a statement, journalists wait at the doors, and his long-time collaborator and friend, the Actress, hides in the sound booth wearing a costume of Marie Antoinette. She does not believe the accusations. She knows what he is like: difficult, arrogant, and brilliant. She also knows how theatre works: everyone shouts, embraces, hates and loves; boundaries are blurred, and perhaps the young are simply “too sensitive” to it. Through conversations with the Stage Manager, Wardrobe Mistress, Firefighter, and Cleaning Lady Vera, information begins to surface that slowly dismantles her version of the truth. When she learns that among the women who have spoken out are Veronika, a girl she prepared for entrance exams, and Vera’s daughter, the Actress begins to question what she actually saw. This is a tragicomic story about witnesses, silence, and the ever-present question: how is it that nobody knew anything?
Sanja Milardović was born in 1987 in Rijeka, Croatia. She graduated in acting from the Academy of Arts and Culture in Osijek. As an actress, she has collaborated with numerous theatre companies, including Teatar &TD, ZPC, Rugantino, Žar ptica, Moruzgva, Exit, Kunst Teatar, and Mala scena, and has appeared in around thirty roles in film and television. In addition to acting, she writes and directs theatre productions (Šumastikus, Mala čuda, Visibaba, and Armagedonci). She has also directed three short films; her first, Tek tako, was screened at around twenty festivals, while her second film, Ništa ja tebi ne govorim, samo kažem, won several national and international awards and is available on HBO Max. In 2024, her short film A gdje je Nataša? premiered. She is the recipient of numerous awards for acting, directing, screenwriting, and complete stage works, and is a member of the Croatian Freelance Artists’ Association.
A TEAR FOR AN ARTIFICIAL EYE, Ružica Gašparov
Five adolescents spend the summer gathering on a low wall. While Duje is recovering from the loss of an eye and longs for his father, who has a restraining order against him, Tonka struggles with her mother’s overprotectiveness and her father’s absence, Marija tries to find love and accept her own body, and Vandam hides his fear of an abusive father behind stories of strength. Luka, at least on the surface, seems to have the fewest problems. Over the course of this formative summer, however, it becomes clear that he too carries a hidden wound—a boy without any real support within his family. While the adults have neither time nor understanding for them, the low wall becomes a place where they can share their fears and find comfort.
Ružica Gašperov publishes short stories and dramatic texts in magazines, anthologies, and literary portals in Croatia and abroad. She is the recipient of the Albatros Award for her short story collection Gubitnici (2018). Her play Adio pameti has been performed in several theatres (Bjelovar, Sinj, Stari Grad) and broadcast on HRT3, while Kolači was staged at AK “Josip Badalić” Križ. In collaboration with Sara Kopeczky and Luca Kozina, she published Priručnica: Od ideje do priče.
