DOCUMENTARIES
BROTHERS IN ARMS, feature documentary
BRAĆA PO ORUŽJU, dokumentarni film (2026.)
Brothers in Arms is a feature documentary that, through personal testimonies of Croatian defenders of Serbian nationality, addresses an important and rarely explored aspect of the Croatian War of Independence. The film was made in collaboration between the Association of Veterans, Soldiers and Patriots and MEDIA 53, written by Tanja Belobrajdić, directed by Goran Maršalek and produced by Dražen Hrženjak. Through the experiences of Damir Ralić, Željko Baltić, Rankan Čučković and Željko Ilić, the film explores personal responsibility, belonging, wartime choices and the cost of decision-making in a time of deep social division. Presented at a gala premiere at Kino Forum in Zagreb, Brothers in Arms further confirms the continuity of MEDIA 53’s work on documentary projects that shape complex social issues through a clear authorial approach, precise dramaturgy and production standards aimed at a wider audience.
Press excerpt from direktno.hr
Article by Josip Senjak
About
Brothers In Arms
“The Zagreb premiere of Brothers in Arms became an emotional tribute to the film’s protagonists, greeted by the audience with ovations. With high production value, rare archival material and a story charged with emotion, the film left a powerful impression on the packed audience.”
1991: WHO IS YOUR NEIGHBOR?, feature doc.
1991. TKO JE TVOJ BLIŽNJI?, dokumentarni film (2021.)
1991: Who Is Your Neighbor? is an internationally awarded feature documentary shaped through the key authorial, creative and editorial work of members of today’s MEDIA 53 team. Among its international distinctions, the film received awards for Best European Director and Best Editing, highlighting the direction and post-production work of Goran Maršalek.
Set in the late autumn of 1991, the film follows foreign volunteers who joined Croatia’s defense out of a personal sense of injustice, while questioning the lasting label of “mercenaries” and "dogs of war" often attached to them.
Produced by the Association of Veterans, Soldiers and Patriots from Zagreb, the film had its official premiere on November 17, 2021, at the Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall, in the presence of Croatian President Zoran Milanović and numerous guests from public life.
Zoran Milanović
President of the Republic of Croatia
About
1991: Who is your neighbor?
"I often watch great BBC documentaries with my family, but I have never seen anything like this. Kudos to you! Congratulations!"
STORM OF THE SOUL, feature documentary
BURA DUŠE, dokumentarni film (2019.)
Storm Of The Soul is MEDIA 53’s first feature documentary and the beginning of its collaboration with the Association of Veterans, Soldiers and Patriots, later continued on other documentary projects. The film won at the London Movie Awards, received a Silver Award at the Milan Gold Awards, and was selected for six additional international festivals.
Built around the testimonies of three Croatian veterans, the film offers a different perspective on life before and after the Croatian War of Independence, focusing on trauma, inner struggle and the possibility of personal renewal. Following its 2019 premiere, Storm Of The Soul was recognized by an expert committee of the Croatian Ministry of Veterans’ Affairs as the strongest documentary on the Croatian War of Independence among more than 50 films supported by the Ministry up to that point. Only seven days after its premiere, the film opened the Ministry’s documentary film festival and was subsequently screened at major national commemorations and public events over the following two years.
Produced by MEDIA 53 in co-production with the Association of Veterans, Soldiers and Patriots, the film premiered on April 22, 2019, in the Great Hall of Kino Europa in Zagreb, and was later broadcast nationally on HTV 1 on Easter Monday, April 5, 2021, in prime time at 8 p.m.
Daniel Rafaelić
Film historian and film critic
About
Storm Of The Soul
"I am amazed by its visual rhetoric, film literacy, great camera and editing. You have managed to insert into an often non-filmic narrative a visual delight that so finely, rhythmically, accompanies the story. The film has no unnecessary narrative straits, the use of archives is with measure and always in the function of the story... I think you managed to convey an extremely important topic without a grain of melodrama, so common in this type of film."
I'D LIKE TO TELL YOU ..., documentary
ŽELIM TI REĆI..., dokumentarni film (2015.)
I'd Like To Tell You... is MEDIA 53’s first independent documentary film, an intimate portrait of a woman who opens her life story with rare honesty and emotional clarity. Through her testimony, the film follows a journey marked by anorexia, injustice, war displacement, fear and personal dissatisfaction, with a diagnosis of systemic lupus erythematosus becoming one of the defining turning points of her life.
Due to specific health circumstances surrounding the protagonist, the film was created through an unusually concentrated production process: the main interview was filmed first, while all remaining visual material was captured five years later, in a single afternoon. Rather than focusing only on illness and hardship, I Want to Tell You... explores resilience, inner transformation and the decisions that allowed her to rebuild her life beyond lupus.
The film premiered in Osijek on December 16, 2015, and was later recognized by film critics for its strong festival potential, marking an important early step in MEDIA 53’s authorial documentary work.
Boško Picula
Film critic
About
I'd Like To Tell You…
"Congratulations on your film! Impressive, sincere and visually great work. The film is a solid combination of a well-chosen theme, the way of its realization and universally understandable messages drawn through a personal story and with a particularly successful use of expressive means, from filming to editing. I am convinced that the film has festival potential."
