By Robert St. Martin
This weekend and week following is SEEfest 2025. the 20th Anniversary of the SEEfest South East European Film Festival, which run through Wednesday, May 7. The closing night film on Wednesday May 9 is DJ Ahmet at the Laemmle Royal Theatre in West L.A. DJ Ahmet premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2025 and won both the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Creative Vision and the Audience Award in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition. Director Georgi M. Unkovski is a Macedonian award-winning writer and director, whose work has been featured at over 200 international film festivals, HBO and MTV. This charming film is the story of Ahmet, a 15-year-old boy from a remote Yuruk village in North Macedonia, who finds refuge in music while navigating his father’s expectations in raising sheep. He lives in a conservative community where he has his first experience with love – a girl already promised to someone else. For the film schedule, tickets, and detailed program information, go to: SEEfest2025.eventive.org.
Earlier in the same week on Monday, May 7, there will be documentary films at the Laemmle Town Center in Encino. The first is Fakir, directed by Slovakian filmmaker Roman Ďuriš. The film tells the psychological journey of Dalibor, a young Romani man from a dysfunctional family. Set against the backdrop of a Slovak slum, this gripping, immersive, and cinematic experience delves into the captivating life at the edge of society, unfolding a modern-day Oedipus story. With a stolen childhood, Dalibor yearns for a father figure in a world that brings a constant struggle for one‘s place. Fakir vividly explores the raw pain that arises from abuse and trauma. This pain resides both internally within the family‘s walls and externally, where the circus‘s agonizing nailbed becomes his haven.
On the same Monday at the Laemmle Town Center is a screening of Nanna Frank Møller’s documentary The Sky Above Zenica. In Zenica, a medium-sized Bosnian town, frequent occurrences of cancers, childhood diabetes, and respiratory disease have become the norm. Air pollution, in general, is high in Bosnia, but the citizens look with suspicion towards a giant steel and coking plant that occupies a quarter of the city and is the largest employer in the area. They want the factory’s emissions to be monitored, as the environmental permit requires, but nothing happens. In the hardest hit neighborhood, the citizens do not feel heard at all and instead join forces in the citizens’ organization Eko Forum to demand change. But like a Greek tragedy, the conflict of interests is bigger than everyone involved. Citizens worry about their health and their livelihood, politicians need to deliver jobs and attract foreign investments to get re-elected, while EBRD (The European Bank of Reconstruction and Development) provides a loan to a new power plant running on the emissions from the coking plant, as well as bicycle lanes that are to help brand Zenica a Green City project.
Also that evening is a third documentary Our Children (Nasa Djeca) by Croatian director Silvestar Kolbas in an autobiographical film about his own family. Silvestar has for some time been the oldest Kolbas in his family. His parents are dead; his father died before the Bosnian war, his mother a few years back. He is 68. He had a younger brother, who died from the consequences of the Bosnian war. This is his second marriage. He has three children: Jakov, from his first marriage; Eva, from his second marriage, conceived in vitro; and Ante, adopted from an orphanage when he was 8. Some of the questions the director asks in this film are: How do the children affect their feelings and opinions, as well as the relationship between himself and his wife? How does he affect each child?
On Tuesday, SEEfest returns to the Laemmle Royal in West Los Angeles for several documentaries. First off is Anja Koprivšek’s Grand Prize, which takes place in conservative Croatia. There in Zagreb, a ballroom offers a sanctuary for LGBTQIA+ performers. Valentina (29) is a talented voguer and trailblazer of the scene, while young trans man Teo (21). Teo is searching for community and acceptance. He finds both in Valentina, who supports him through his transition, while he opens her heart to emotions she has long kept at bay. As their relationship deepens, the young couple begins dreaming of a shared future.
This is followed by a documentary Another Day directed by Greek filmmaker Eneos Çarka, who received the FIPRESCI Award in 2023 for his MFA film The Silence of The Banana Trees (2022). This film takes place in Italy and charts the lives of two artists who began their careers performing together in the streets of Italy but end up going in separate paths. Brought together by their difficult past, Rafael and Besmir have come together in pursuit of their shared dreams to become professional performers. As they enter their thirties, dreams change and conflicts arise. The end of a chapter in their lives is approaching and it threatens their friendship.
Tuesday evening at the Laemmle Royal closes out with Waterdrop, a feature film by Albanian filmmaker Robert Budina. His Agon was the Albanian Nomination for the Oscars in 2014. Robert Budina’s second feature film, A Shelter among the Clouds, had has the world premiere in Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in Estonia, in the Official Competition, November 2018. The story takes place in a picturesque Albanian town on the shores of Lake Ohrid, where Aida reigns as a tough, successful businesswoman. As city planner, she manages the allocation of lucrative EU subsidies, navigating a corrupt system where her boss pockets large portions of the funds. To maintain her position in this ultra-masculine, patriarchal world, Aida isn’t above accepting the occasional bribe herself.
Her carefully constructed life crumbles when her teenage son Mark is accused of sexual assault by a classmate. Convinced of his innocence, Aida launches her own investigation, defying both her husband’s wishes and police authority. As she delves deeper, Aida encounters a suffocating wall of silence, envy, and deep-seated prejudice. Her relentless pursuit of the truth unearths a tangled web of lies that threatens to unravel everything she’s built. Aida soon realizes she must confront the very monster she helped create – a corrupt system she’s long been complicit in. Her journey not only challenges her beliefs about her son but forces her to reckon with her own moral compromises. With her family’s future and her own redemption at stake, Aida must decide how far she’s willing to go and what she’s prepared to sacrifice in her quest for justice.
