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    • New Talents Open Call
      Eastern Neighbours Film Festival (ENFF) began in The Netherlands in 2008 with the idea to offer Dutch and international audiences a unique glimpse into the cinema of their neighbors from Eastern and Southern Europe. This annual event presents the most recent, exciting, and thought‐provoking films, from countries with small, but often powerful film industries, that… Read more: New Talents Open Call
    • ENFF 2023 On Demand!
      Unable To attend the festival in person? No problem! From November 27th to December 3rd, we’re thrilled to bring you a curated selection of this year’s films available for online viewing! Catch our captivating Opening Film Ivan’s Land, or the touching Closing Film Seventh Heaven. Or explore a collection of shorts from the New Talents Competition! Follow along… Read more: ENFF 2023 On Demand!
    • What’s up in Slovak Cinema? A conversation with Monika Lostakova
      We talked with Monika Lošťáková about contemporary Slovak cinema.
    • ENFF and the Eastern European Film Festival Network!
      The Eastern European Film Festival Network brings together five film festivals dedicated to promoting and showcasing Eastern European cinema, alongside one partner organisation.
    • Masterclasses
      Through these masterclasses we approach two memory in film from different angles: memories from a personal or collective recollection through archive material.
    • Work in Progress
      In Work in Progress, emerging filmmakers and artists will present their works in development to the audience and engage in discussions with Dutch experts.
    • Festival Timetable Available!
    • Check out the catalogue for our 2023 edition!
    • Music at ENFF
      Every year, ENFF brings special musical guests who bring beauty to the program and further represent the rich cultures of their countries to a Dutch audience.
    • Film Marathon
      Join us for the Film Marathon, a new concept in which we merge two components, Short Films, Big Stories, and New Talents Competition into a whole-day screening of short films!

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