A FILM BY Stefan Pavlovic
the Netherlands, Bosnia-Herzegovina, France | 88' | 2021 | DOCUMENTARY
Looking for Horses is a film about a friendship between the filmmaker and a fisherman, who lost his hearing during the Bosnian civil war and retreated to a lake to live in solitude. The filmmaker, son of Bosnian parents, struggles to communicate as he lost his mother-tongue due to a heavy stutter. Despite their speech and hearing limitations, a 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. Where 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. Taking the shape of a gentle western, 'Looking for Horses' is a poetic documentary on trauma, survival, and connection.
AWARDS
Burning Lights competition, Best Feature Award, Visions du Réel 2021
Special Jury Award, Competition Programme – Documentary Film, SARAJEVO FILM FESTIVAL 2021
Special Jury Mention, Festival international du film de Nancy 2021
Grand Prix at Corsica.Doc 2021
Grand Prix at International Feature Length Competition at RIDM 2021
Golden Key Feature Film Award at Kasseler Dokfest 2021
BALCANI CAUCASOTRANSEUROPA Award for Best Documentary in Competition at TRIESTE FILM FESTIVAL 2022
Special Jury Award at ISMALIA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2022
Best International Feature at AMDOCS 2022
Audience Award at SEEfest Los Angeles 2022
SCREENINGS
World Premiere: Visions du Réel – April 2021
2021 FID Marseille (French Premiere)
2021 Sarajevo Film Festival (Regional Premiere)
2021 Festival International du Film de Nancy
2021 Beldocs (Serbian Premiere)
2021 Corsica.Doc
2021 DOK Leipzig (German Premiere)
2021 Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival (Czech Premiere)
2021 MIDBO International Documentary Film Festival Bogotá (Colombian Premiere)
2021 Cork Film Festival (Irish Premiere)
2021 RIDM (Canadian Premiere)
2021 Cambridge FF (UK Premiere)
2021 Kasseler Dokfest
2021 IDFA (Dutch Premiere)
2021 Porto/Post/Doc (Portuguese Premiere)
2021 This Human World (Austrian Premiere)
2021 Human Rights FF Zagreb (Croatian Premiere)
2021 Guangzhou Documentary Film Festival, the Golden Kapok
2022 Trieste Film Festival
2022 DocPoint Film Festival
2022 Santa Barbara IFF (US Premiere)
2022 Ismailia IFF (Egypt Premiere)
2022 Ann Arbor Film Festival
2022 American Documentary and Animation Film Festival – AmDocs
2022 Dokumentarfilmwoche Hamburg
2022 South East European Film Festival Los Angeles – SEEfest
2022 Taiwan International Documentary Festival
2021 Sarajevo Film Festival (Regional Premiere)
2021 Festival International du Film de Nancy
2021 Beldocs (Serbian Premiere)
2021 Corsica.Doc
2021 DOK Leipzig (German Premiere)
2021 Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival (Czech Premiere)
2021 MIDBO International Documentary Film Festival Bogotá (Colombian Premiere)
2021 Cork Film Festival (Irish Premiere)
2021 RIDM (Canadian Premiere)
2021 Cambridge FF (UK Premiere)
2021 Kasseler Dokfest
2021 IDFA (Dutch Premiere)
2021 Porto/Post/Doc (Portuguese Premiere)
2021 This Human World (Austrian Premiere)
2021 Human Rights FF Zagreb (Croatian Premiere)
2021 Guangzhou Documentary Film Festival, the Golden Kapok
2022 Trieste Film Festival
2022 DocPoint Film Festival
2022 Santa Barbara IFF (US Premiere)
2022 Ismailia IFF (Egypt Premiere)
2022 Ann Arbor Film Festival
2022 American Documentary and Animation Film Festival – AmDocs
2022 Dokumentarfilmwoche Hamburg
2022 South East European Film Festival Los Angeles – SEEfest
2022 Taiwan International Documentary Festival
