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The 30th Sarajevo Film Festival in Bosnia and Herzegovina will open on Aug. 16 with the world premiere of “My Late Summer” by local filmmaker Danis Tanović, who won an Oscar with “No Man’s Land.”

The comedy-drama centers on a young woman, Maja, who travels to a remote island to sort out her family’s inheritance. In a whirlwind of emotions and surprising situations, she faces questions from her past. The search for inheritance becomes a search for her own identity, but also for forgiveness.

The film will be screened simultaneously in Sarajevo at the National Theatre, at the Coca-Cola Open Air Cinema, at the Stari Grad open air cinema and at the Centar Safet Zajko open air cinema, and its premiere will also kick off the festival’s screenings in Mostar, at the Bh Telecom Open Air Cinema Mostar, and in Tuzla, at the Bingo Open Air Cinema Tuzla.

Tanović...

Dubai-based sales agent Cercamon has acquired world sales rights for Juraj Lerotić’s “Safe Place,” which won three awards after its world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival and was named best film at Sarajevo.

The Croatian director’s feature debut is the emotional story of a family reeling in the wake of a suicide attempt that centers on a man’s struggle to save his younger brother, creating a rift in the family’s everyday life.

“Safe Place” plays on Lerotić’s own pained family history, with the Croatian multihyphenate taking on the lead role in his deeply personal story – a performance that also earned him the award for best actor in Sarajevo. “The film is reduced to the most acute, to a short time span and a clear situation that can be put in a nutshell: save the loved one,” the filmmaker said in a statement.

Cercamon head...

About halfway through “Safe Place,” a film already not given to taking it easy on viewers’ emotions, the meek, honest delivery of a single word — “Sorry” — shatters the heart irreparably into a million small shards. It comes from Damir (Goran Marković), a quiet, bearish but child-eyed man who has just attempted to take his own life. His stunned, protective brother Bruno (Juraj Lerotić) won’t hear of any such apologies, but still that plaintive “sorry” hangs between them, perhaps standing in for several unexplained factors from the past, perhaps covering further devastations to come. Every small word and gesture counts for a lot in Croatian multihyphenate Lerotić’s sparse, still, tender-as-a-bruise debut feature: Any bigger ones might throw a severely delicate situation off-balance.

Ordinarily, one would advise a first-time writer-director not to further burden themselves with a leading onscreen role in their freshman effort, least of all if they’re not a seasoned actor themselves.

The buzzy regional event attrracted festival programmers from Cannes, Berlin and around the world.

Croatian director Sonja Tarokić’s debut feature The Staffroom was the big winner at the 69th edition of the Pula Film Festival when it received nine awards at the closing ceremony at the weekend in the port’s 2,000 year-old Roman amphitheatre.

The Croatian Programme Jury, headed by Austrian director Stefan Ruzowitzky, presented the film with the festival’s main award, the Grand Golden Arena for best festival film, as well as Golden Arenas for best director, best actor for Stojan Matavulj , best supporting actress, and best editing.