ON THE OTHER SIDE

S ONE STRANE

By Zrinko OGRESTA

CROATIAN AUDIOVISUAL CENTRE (HAVC) - as FIN / PROMO

Thriller - Completed 2016

20 years ago, Vesna moved her family to Zagreb, away from the events that almost destroyed their lives. However, an unexpected call will bring back the memory of a secret that she has been trying to hide all these years.

Festivals
& Awards

International Film Festival Berlin 2016
Panorama
    • Year of production
    • 2016
    • Genres
    • Thriller, Drama
    • Countries
    • CROATIA, SERBIA
    • Languages
    • CROATIAN
    • Duration
    • 85 mn
    • Director(s)
    • Zrinko OGRESTA
    • Writer(s)
    • Mate MATISIC, Zrinko OGRESTA
    • Producer(s)
    • Ivan MALOCA (Interfilm), Lazar RISTOVSKI (Zillion)
    • Synopsis
    • Vesna is a middle-aged woman who works as a visiting nurse in Zagreb. Twenty years ago, she lived in Sisak, a small Croatian industrial town she was forced to leave during the war, when a violent incident almost destroyed the life of her family. In the capital, she managed to hide her identity and start anew. Today her children are all grown up: her son Vladimir is a business man who now has a family of his own; her daughter Jadranka has just finished her studies – she cannot find a job, but hopes to work for a government agency. Jadranka is also getting ready for a wedding with a man who is considerably older than her.
      One day Vesna gets an unexpected call from her husband Žarko, a man who left her on the eve of the war, after which he was sentenced for war crimes in Croatia and Bosnia. They haven't spoken nor heard from each other in more than two decades, but now he wants to reach out to her and to reconnect with his family.
      Jadranka and Vladimir refuse any contact with their father, knowing that his past could bring back the stigma which they barely managed to escape not so long ago. At first, Vesna too tries to remain distant and cold, but after years of loneliness, something in her starts to break. But when the news about Žarko's release hits the media, Vesna's past starts to creep up on her much faster that she thought.