FNE announced in June that the film was acquired by Athens-based sales agent Heretic Outreach.
The ''users'' are children who were born with a mental handicap, abandoned by their families and placed in specialised institutions, where most of them spend their whole lives. The film is a melodrama about a love triangle of teenagers, whose emotions linger on a thin line between eros and thanatos, threatening to end in tragedy at any moment. Ikić said he was inspired by the people and situation he encountered when making a documentary, and that he cast actual residents from the institution in the film. He spent some months on acting workshops and improvising scenes with the non-pro cast before he shot the film, spanning a period from May 2018 to October 2019.
The Users is produced by Milan Stojanović through SENSE Production in coproduction with the Netherlands’ Kepler Film, Slovenia’s Tramal Films, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s SCCA / Pro.ba and France’s Les Films d’Antoine. The production has been supported by Film Center Serbia, the Slovenian Film Center, the Netherlands Film Fund, the Sarajevo Cinema Fund, as well as Creative Europe MEDIA and Eurimages.
The budget is 670,000 EUR. The producers are still in need of mastering and DCP.
Ivan Ikić’s first feature film Barbarians / Varvari premiered at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in 2014, where it won the Special Mention in the East of the West Competition.
Production Information:
Producer:
SENSE Production (Serbia)
Milan Stojanović: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Marija Stojanović: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Coproducers:
Kepler Film (the Netherlands)
Tramal Films (Slovenia)
SCCA / Pro.ba (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Les Films d’Antoine (France)
Credits:
Director: Ivan Ikić
Scriptwriter: Ivan Ikić
DoP: Miloš Jaćimović
Cast: Maruša Majer, Goran Bogdan, Marijana Novakov, Tijana Marković, Valentino Zenuni
