The film Promised Spaces, directed by Ivan Marković, has been included in the program of the 76th ACID International Film Festival in Cannes, where it will have its world premiere. ACID is a parallel program of the Cannes Festival dedicated to the promotion of independent films, chosen by filmmakers – more precisely, members of the ACID association, with the aim of affirming new and authentic author’s works. This year’s program consists of nine films.
Promised Spaces is a feature-length film that combines fiction and documentary elements, co-produced by France (Bocalupo Films), Germany (Fiskultura Films), Serbia (Big Time Production) and Cambodia (Anti-Archive). After a long development process started in Serbia, the film was shot in Cambodia.
The plot follows a community of workers who live in one of the many unfinished high-rise buildings. In one of these buildings, in a luxury apartment, the first tenant Seda moves in, who soon feels isolated and deceived in the huge closed complex.
Through a combination of fictional structure and documentary elements, the film explores the consequences of accelerated urbanization and speculative development, raising questions about identity, community and the very notion of home. Director Ivan Marković stated that, “through the parallel worlds of workers and residents of luxury complexes, the film depicts the way in which architecture reflects class segregation.”
The direction, script and editing are by Ivan Marković, who is also the director of photography together with Katharina Hauke. Tanja Šljivar collaborated on the script, while Luka Barajević was in charge of sound mixing. The producers of the film are Jasmina Sijerčić (Bocalupo Films), Žofi Lili Kovač (Fiskultura Films), Jelena Radenković (Big Time Production) and Daniel Mattes (Anti-Archive).
Photo/Ivan Marković