12-08-2021

FNE at CineLink Sarajevo 2021: Forget the Ocean, Why Not Try Surfing These Insane River Waves

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    Forget the Ocean, Why Not Try Surfing These Insane River Waves by Marko Grba Singh Forget the Ocean, Why Not Try Surfing These Insane River Waves by Marko Grba Singh

    SARAJEVO: Marko Grba Singh, whose latest documentary Rampart (Nanslafu Films, 2021) premiered at the Locarno Film Festival 2021, is presenting his debut feature project Forget the Ocean, Why Not Try Surfing These Insane River Waves at Sarajevo Film Festival’s CineLink Co-production Market, which will take place from 14 till 19 August 2021.

    Forget the Ocean, Why Not Try Surfing These Insane River Waves is both an exploration into the love story of the director’s grandparents (Yugoslav Gordana and Punjabi Mahinder) and a thought experiment about how this love would be looked upon today in post-Brexit Britain. Gordana and Mahindar are to meet on a dating app, fall in love and face many obstacles together. The film explores how different the obstacles of the 1960’s are from the ones the pair would face in the first decades of the 2000s, when xenophobia is on the rise once again.

    The film is produced by Dragana Jovović of Non-Aligned Films, the producer behind Ognjen Glavonić’s The Load (Non-Aligned Films, 2016), which premiered in Cannes Film Festival’s Director’s Fortnight.

    The budget is set at 715,062 EUR and 10,553 EUR is secured so far. Script development has been supported by Film Center Serbia and the rest is the producer’s own investment.

    At CineLink, the team is looking for both coproducers and sales. All territories are still available.

    Shooting is planned for Serbia and the United Kingdom, but the producers are open to possibilities of shooting in other prospective coproduction countries instead.

    Principal photography is planned for the autumn and winter of 2022.

    Production information:

    Producer:
    Non-Aligned Films (Serbia)
    Supported by Film Center Serbia

    Credits:
    Writer and Director: Marko Grba Singh
    DoP: Marko Milovanović
    Editing: Mina Petrović
    Sound Design: Luka Barajević
    Producer: Dragana Jovović