The Trap director Srdan Golubovic’s latest feature is the true story of a Serbian soldier who risked his life to protect a Muslim civilian during the war in Bosnia.

Synopsis: During the war in Bosnia in 1993, a Serbian soldier pays for his life after protecting a Muslim civilian from being attacked by three other soldiers. 15 years later, the consequences of this act of heroism are still having their repercussions.

Director: Srdan Golubovic

Writer: Srdjan Koljevic, Melina Pota Koljevic

Producers: Jelena Mitrovic for Bas Celik and Alexander Ris for Neue Mediopolis Filmproduktion, co-producing with Danijel Hocevar for Vertigo/E-motion Film, Boris Matic for Propeler Film and Emilie Georges for La Cinefacture

Cast: Vuk Kostic, Nebojsa Glogovac, Aleksandar Bercek, Leon Lucev, Geno Lechner, Emir Hadzihafizbegovic

Budget: €2.05m

Financing: Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (MDM), Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Fond Sud. Arte, Eurimages, Film Center Serbia/Ministry of Culture, Croatian Audiovisual Centre/Minstry of Culture, Slovenian Film Fund/Ministry of Culture

Language: Serbian, German

Locations: Trebinje (Bosnia-Herzegovina), Halle-Neustadt, Leipzig (Germany), Belgrade (Serbia)

Shooting dates: February – May 2011

International sales: Memento Films International

Distribution: Pandora Film (Germany), Memento Films (France)

“We first came upon the true story of Srdjan Aleksic when I was surfing on the internet at the goEast film festival in Wiesbaden in 2007 [where Golubovic’s last feature The Trap was shown in competition and won the prize for Best Direction and the FIPRESCI International Critics Prize],” says producer Jelena Mitrovic of Belgrade-based Bas Celik.

“The project got a real boost last year when Srdan took part in L’Atelier at the Cannes Film Festival last year and won the International Relations Arte Prize for best screenplay. Meinolf Zurhorst of ZDF/Arte had been very supportive of the project from the outset and then we were able to get Arte France to come onboard to make Circles, the first Balkan film to be supported by the channel’s ‘grand accord’ co-production programme.”

“Part of the later story is set in Germany because one of the main characters, the man who was saved, left Bosnia and has built up a new existence in his adopted country with a German wife and children. We looked in Germany for the same kind of Socialist architecture as the kind you have in Bosnia and found it in Halle-Neustadt. Getting a feel for the life of Bosnians in Germany was not hard for Srdan and [co-screenwriter] Melina because they both have relatives in Germany and could draw on these experiences for authenticity.”

German producer Alexander Ris of Neue Mediopolis who is working with Bas Celik for the fourth time after Golubovic’s The Trap, Damjan Kozole’s Slovenian Girl and Srdjan Koljevic’s The Woman With a Broken Nose.

Director Srdan Golubovic says: “It is the most complex project of my career so far. For the first time, I am making a film with a mosaic structure created by three plot lines. That’s a real challenge considering that until now I’ve told stories in a linear manner.”

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