Romanian cinema: Ivana Mladenović wins best director at Sarajevo Film Festival for ‘Sorella di Clausura’

Serbian-Romanian filmmaker Ivana Mladenović received the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Director on Friday night at the 31st Sarajevo Film Festival for her feature film Sorella di Clausura. The Romanian-Serbian-Italian-Spanish co-production competed in the festival’s international fiction section.

“I am grateful for this award and for the way the film was received. I was very happy to see it here,” Mladenović said after the ceremony, thanking lead actress Katia Pascariu, producer Ada Solomon, cinematographer Marius Panduru, co-writers, editor Vanja Kovačević, and the rest of her team.

The jury, chaired by Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa, praised the film as a “punk-spirited” work flowing “like a Dostoevskian river” that ultimately evolves into “a romantic comedy without romance.”

Produced by Ada Solomon (microFILM, Romania) and Ivana Mladenović (Dunav 84, Serbia), Sorella di Clausura follows the story of Stela (Katia Pascariu), a young woman from the provinces who becomes infatuated with a Balkan artist she has only seen on television. Her journey to Bucharest, encouraged by a singer named Vera, takes an unexpected turn as promises clash with reality.

The Sarajevo delegation for Sorella di Clausura included Mladenović, co-writer Momir Milosević, actors Katia Pascariu, Miodrag Mladenović, Gordana Mladenović, and Tina Pop, alongside producer Ada Solomon and members of the microFILM team.

God Will Not Help, another co-production supported by the same Romanian company microFILM and directed by Croatian filmmaker Hana Jušić, received the Special Award for Promoting Gender Equality. The jury described it as a mysterious, genre-defying story set in isolation, with strong performances and a haunting atmosphere.

(Photo source: press release)