Sandbag Dam

In a Croatian village that threatens to be destroyed by a flood, Marko tries to keep his feelings under control when a forbidden love from the past returns to his life.

An intimate and melancholic story of growing up in a village that threatens to be submerged by an impending flood. Marko, a gifted athlete who is faced with his father’s plan to become a car mechanic, faces an upset when Slaven, his first forbidden love, returns. Torn between his loyalty to his girlfriend and resurfacing emotions, Marko becomes restless. What he suppressed for years begins to emerge, like water finding its way through the tiniest cracks.

The film builds tension from details: Lav Novosel (Marko) and Andrija Žunac (Slaven) bring a natural performance that revives the gentle connection between the characters. Their moments of closeness, sharing a cigarette or a dreamy ride in a car, become a fragile resistance to the cruelty of everyday life and homophobia. While the locals build a dam of sandbags, Marko builds his own wall of silence. But just as floods break through levees, feelings also find a way.

Programme section: Cinema Current / LGBTQIA+
Original title: Zečji nasip | Year: 2025 | Duration: 88′
Country: Kosovo, France | Language: Albanian | Subtitles: English
Director: Čejen Černić Čanak | Production: Ankica Jurić Tilić, Hrvoje Pervan, Dragan Jurić – Kinorama; Tremora, Perfo Production | Cast: Lav Novosel, Andrija Žunac, Leon Grgić, Franka Mikolaci, Alma Prica, Filip Šovagović | Screenplay: Tomislav Zajec | Cinematography: Marko Brdar | Editing: Slaven Zečević

FESTIVALS & AWARDS (SELECTION) 

Berlinale, 2025 – World Premiere (Generation 14plus) | Crossing Europe Film Festival Linz, 2025 – Young Jury Special Mention | Pula Film Festival, 2025 – Best First Time Actor (Lav Novosel), Best Supporting Actor (Andrija Žunac), Best Sound (Julij Zornik), Best Music (Domas Strupinskas) | Wicked Queer Boston, 2025 – Best Narrative | Out Shine LGBTQ+ Film Festival Miami, 2025 – Best Feature | Zinegoak Bilbao, 2025 – Best Actor 

DIRECTOR’S BIO 

Čejen Černić Čanak (Osijek, 1982) graduated in Film and TV Direction from the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb. After directing numerous short fiction, documentary, and animated films, she made her feature debut with the youth film “The Mystery of Green Hill”, adapted from Ivan Kušan’s novel by Hana Jušić. This project earned her the Golden Birch Award for Best Debuting Director at the Pula Film Festival. The film became a box office hit, screened at over 25 festivals, and was sold to multiple countries, including the USA, Canada, China, Germany, Austria, and Malaysia. “Sandbag Dam” is her second feature.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

This is a story about gay love, but also about any kind of misunderstood, condemned, ostracised love. I wanted to build the emotion by staying close to my characters, two very young men who, because of their relationship, feel family rejection, social condemnation and even existential threat. The external circumstances, such as the flood that threatens the village, are used as a metaphorical image of the tightening of the hoop around them, but also as a metaphor for a society that keeps neglecting and ignoring problems, instead of facing them and moving forward. Being different, which in our story translates to being gay, is condemned without a second thought. Without trying to understand, acknowledge, or tolerate. This is why I find this subject very important, and I hope I managed to film an emotional story that will reach and teach the hearts and minds of wider audiences.