The synopsis for Tea Lukač's first feature-length documentary, Roots [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Tea Lukač
fiche film], set to premiere in Karlovy Vary's East of the West competition this summer (see the news), reads: "Sitting in the back of a moving car, different passengers travel on a road on the edge of a vast forest. They carry tales about hornets’ nests, petitions against nuclear waste, loneliness, carnival treats, folkloric traditions, cemetery visits and roads leading home. The forest, serene in the sun, mysterious in the fog and wild on the river, frames the seven stories as they pass by. Containing elements of documentary, ethnography and fiction, Roots is a strangely wondrous and often exhilarating film.”

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Lukač shot the feature in her hometown of Dvor in central Croatia, which she left when she was six, due to the outbreak of the Croatian War.

"Unfortunately, as often happens with wars, written and visual traces of culture and personal histories end up being gone and scattered, mine included," says Lukač. "Toys I used to play with, photos of my family, places and people end up existing only in a cloud of hearsay – a personal mythology that is never quite palpable, like a puzzle always missing a few pieces in order to be complete. What’s left are just habits, rituals, oral tradition and, luckily, people. That being said, although it’s inevitably in the DNA of the place, Roots is not a film about war, but one about stories struggling not to be forgotten."

Roots is a production by Andrijana Sofranić Šućur for Belgrade-based NANA 143, in co-production with Set Sail Films. Her first feature film, Stefan Malešević’s Mamonga [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Stefan Malesevic
fiche film], premiered at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in 2019.

Check out our exclusive trailer below: