One day, Borš, a grocery store clerk in a small Serbian town in the mid-1990s, meets Tana, a young woman from Hungary. Together, they embark on a quest to find her lost backpack. During their journey through the Serbian countryside, an unexpected friendship blossoms between them, changing their lives forever.
“The script is based on fragments of my childhood memories: the carefree summers at my grandmother’s house in Vojvodina, the sense of security my family gave me even then, and the uncertainty that marked the 1990s in the Balkans,” says director Áron Horváth Botka.
He also said that he started writing it as a creative experiment in the road film genre, but it quickly became clear that something much more personal was emerging.
The main roles are played by Aleksa Sekelj, Andraž Jug, Attilla Messand, Tibor Szloboda and Lilla Kizlinger.
Lost Years is produced by Jerca Jerič and Andraž Jerič through Temporama in coproduction with Andrijana Sofranić Šućur and Miloš Ivanović from the Serbian Set Sail Films and RTV Slovenija. The film is supported by the Slovenian Film Centre, Film Center Serbia, Creative Europe – MEDIA and RE-ACT, with technical support provided by FS Viba.
“The budget is estimated at 1.2 m EUR,” producer Andraž Jerič told FNE, pointing out that filming at various locations in Vojvodina has also been made possible by successful coproduction cooperation with Set Sail Films, a young production company from Belgrade and a vital partner for the realisation of such a complex film.
The 28-days shooting started in Vojvodina and will include several small towns north of Novi Sad in Serbia. The shooting is scheduled from 9 July until 12 August 2025.
The film is expected to be finished towards the end of 2026.
Áron Horváth was born in 1991 in Slovenia to a bilingual family, and grew up as part of the Hungarian minority. He graduated in film directing in 2016 at the AGRFT, followed by a master’s degree in film studies in 2021. Since 2015 he has directed a number of short films, including Bits, which premiered in 2020 at the 23rd Festival of Slovenian Film, where it won Best Short Film.
Production Information:
Producer:
Temporama (Slovenia)
Andraž Jerič: andraz@temporama.si
Coproducers:
Set Sail Films (Serbia)
RTV Slovenija (Slovenia)
Credits:
Director: Áron Horváth Botka
Screenwriter: Áron Horváth Botka
DoP: Domen Martinčič
Production designer: Jelena Terzić Stanković
Make-up artist: Jovana Vukosavljević
Costume designer: Ina Ferlan
Editor: Andrej Avanzo
Cast: Aleksa Sekelj, Lilla Kizlinger, Andraž Jug, Attilla Messand, Tibor Szloboda