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Ivan Ikić’s second feature Oasis is representing Serbia in the International Feature Oscar race this year following its buzzy premiere at the Venice Film Festival. The pic explores how a friendship between Marija (Marijana Novakov) and Dragana (Tijana Markovic) is put to the test, as they both develop a crush on Robert (Valentino Zenuni), a fellow resident at an institution for people with disabilities.

For the film, Ikić revisited the same medical facility where he shot a documentary 20 years ago. During the Sense Production film’s panel at Deadline’s Contenders Film: International, the filmmaker discussed how he used non-professional actors for the lead roles.

“I wanted them to play the roles which were scripted. They never had an opportunity to work in any film before so I could not rely on any previous experience. I started my own process of how to teach them to act in front of the camera,...

When Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy “broke” the Cannes Critics Week selection six years ago with the devastating “The Tribe,” casting deaf actors in an institutional parable exclusively told through sign language, it seemed some sort of event horizon for authenticity and formal daring had been reached. But the deserving Best European Film winner in the Giornate sidebar of the 2020 Venice Film Festival, “Oasis,” which is director Ivan Ikic’s second feature after 2014’s raw and rattling football-hooliganism drama “Barbarians,” may outmatch even that benchmark. An unadorned three-way love story set within the joyless confines of a Serbian institute for people with mental disabilities, it is an unsparing though enrichingly shot tragedy, and its three young stars, as well as most of the background cast, are learning-disabled residents of the facility in real life.

The approach lends the slight story an impressive gravity, while also treating its subjects with profound respect — a quality...

Ivan Ikić’s second feature is a love triangle drama set in an institution for youngsters with special needs.

Athens-based sales agent Heretic Outreach has picked up Ivan Ikić’s love-triangle drama The Users (working title) and will begin discussions at the virtual Cannes market.

It marks the second feature from Serbian director Ikić and was developed through the Cannes-backed Cinéfondation Residence.

Set in an institution for youngsters with special needs, it features two young women in the facility who both fall for a withdrawn young man. The film was shot in an actual institution and the cast comprises real residents,...