The Serbian-Montenegrin documentary To Hold a Mountain, by directors Biljana Tutorov and Petar Glomazić, won the Grand Jury Prize for the best documentary film at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, within the prestigious World Cinema Documentary Competition selection.
In this program, traditionally, the bravest and most exceptional documentaries of authors from all over the world are shown, and the recognition for To Hold a Mountain is a significant success for regional cinematography. Explaining their decision, the jury members pointed out: “This visually and emotionally stunning film transported us to a remote mountain peak and into the most intimate moments of a family fighting to protect not only their country, but also their way of life. The truest example of the power of film to make the personal into political.”
The film was shot on Mount Sinjajevina, on Okrugljak mountain in Montenegro and the surrounding area, over the course of seven years — from 2018 to 2025. According to the screenwriter, director and producer Biljana Tutorov, To Hold a Mountain was conceived as an existentialist fairy tale or a feminist western opera:
“I was inspired by our powerful female protagonists who were true partners in the film process and outside of it, their organic relationship to the nature with which they live in symbiosis, the cyclical dramaturgy of their lives, the emotional layers of the story in which we participated during seven seasons and almost 230 days of stay in the mountain.”
On the remote heights of Sinjajevina, the largest pasture area in the Balkans, a mother and daughter proudly defend their mountain and nomadic herding tradition against the formation of a NATO military training ground. Mother and daughter are connected by extraordinary love, but also bitter memories. In September 2019, the first international military exercise was held in Sinjajevina. Military maneuvers were started in the heart of the pasture, without any prior consultation with the pastoral communities that have used the space for centuries. Gara (59), mother of six children and the leader of the local community in the fight to protect the mountain, and her youngest daughter Nada (13) are fighting two important life battles – environmental, for the preservation of nature, as well as personal and familial – facing patriarchy and violence against women.
The film’s author team consists of screenwriters and directors Biljana Tutorov and Petar Glomazić, director of photography Eva Kraljević, editor Georges Cragg, author of the original music Draško Adžić, sound designer Julij Zornik, while Emil Svetlik was in charge of color correction. The main producer of the film is Biljana Tutorov, and Wake Up Films from Novi Sad, executive producers Megan Gelstein and Bianca Oana, as well as producers Petar Glomazić, Quentin Laurent and Rok Biček, co-producer Dijana Cetina Mlađenović and associate producer Veliša Popović. The main protagonists in the film are Mileva Gara Jovanović and Nada Stanišić.
The film was created with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia, Film Center Serbia, Film Center Montenegro, CNC France – Cinéma du Monde, Slovenian Film Center, Croatian Audiovisual Center, PACA Fund of the Southern France Region, RTV Slovenia, Tax Shelter Belgium program, InMaat Foundation, Doc Society Climate Story Fund, Uniqua See Future Foundation, Catapult Film Fund, Chicken & Egg Films, Diane Weyermann fellowship, IDA Enterprise Grant, as well as the Council of Europe and EURIMAGES.
Foto/Promo