Looking for Horses

Winner of the main award at Visions du Reel and Special Jury Prize at Sarajevo FF, this compelling, beautifully made film was also chosen for the Best of Fest at IDFA. In a poetic and cinematically original language, it depicts a peculiar friendship between the filmmaker and a fisherman.

“Looking for Horses” is a film about a friendship between the filmmaker and a fisherman, who lost his hearing during the war in his homeland Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 90s and retreated to a lake to live in solitude. The filmmaker, the son of Bosnian parents, struggles to communicate as he lost his mother tongue and started to stutter. Despite their speech and hearing limitations, a strong and warm bond develops between the young man and the veteran, as he shares his world of the lake: full of large catfish, wild horses, wide silences, and dangerous thunderstorms. For the fisherman, the lake stands for a withdrawal from a fractured country, a land of war; for the filmmaker it precisely means the return to that broken place, the land of his parents. They look for ways to communicate, while the camera mediates their growing bond. Through its formal choices, this poetic documentary explores the connection between language, friendship and trauma.

The Netherlands, Bosnia and Herzegovina, France | 2021 | 88 min

DIRECTOR: Stefan Pavlovic

PRODUCTION: Kostana Banovic – artTrace Foundation, KAMEN artist residency, Momento! Films

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Stefan Pavlovic

EDITING: Sabine Groenewegen, Stefan Pavlovic

SOUND: Stefan Pavlovic, Ranko Paukovic

MUSIC: Karsten Fundal

Thursday 21.4. / 17:00h / Zaal 2

FESTIVALS & AWARDS (SELECTION) 

Visions du Reel, 2021 – World Premiere, Best Film Award (Burning Light competition) | Doc Alliance Award Nomination, 2021 | FID Marseille, 2021 | Sarajevo Film Festival, 2021 – Special Jury Prize (Documentary Competition) | Festival international du film de Nancy, 2021 – Special Jury Mention | IDFA, 2021