Rok, who suffers from a temporary loss of memory, decides to leave an idyllic tourist town and returns to his hometown. He remembers neither his girlfriend Rina nor his troubled past. While trying to protect his younger brother Jure from bad company and influences, he is forced to face his former life again.
“The main theme is memory loss, which serves as a metaphor for a collective/universal oblivion of some traumatic experience in a wider social context,” Šantić said, explaining his motive for the film, adding that he is very happy that despite the COVID pandemic and all the unpleasant complications of last year, the shooting could start this January.
Šantić co-wrote the screenplay with Slovenian screenwriter/director Goran Vojnović and Croatian screenwriter Sara Hirbar. The DoP is the Croatian cameraman Ivan Zadro.
The 32-days shooting will take place in Slovenian towns of Jesenice, Bled, Kamnik and Ljubljana. The film is expected to be finished by the end of 2021.
Wake Me is produced by Danijel Hočevar and Zala Opara through Vertigo in coproduction with Living Pictures (Serbia), Jaka Produkcija (Croatia) and Hippocampe Productions (France). The film is supported by the Slovenian Film Centre with 504,000 EUR, the Croatian Audiovisual Centre (HAVC) with 93,000 EUR, Film Center Serbia with 58,000 EUR, Eurimages (210,000 EUR), MEDIA – Creative Europe (46,000 EUR) and Société des auteurs, compositeurs et éditeurs de musique – SACEM (5,000 EUR); with in-kind support from FS Viba film studio in the amount of 185,000 EUR. The total budget is estimated at 1.3 m EUR.
Marko Šantić, born in 1983 in Split, Croatia, studied directing at the AGRFT. His student short film Good Luck Nedim (2005) was nominated for the European Film Academy Award and was awarded with the Heart of Sarajevo Award at the Sarajevo Film Festival. Šantić’s debut feature Seduce Me (2013, RTV Slovenija) won the Vesna Award for directing at the Slovenian Film Festival in Portorož.
Production Information:
Producer:
VERTIGO (Slovenia)
Coproducers:
Living Pictures (Serbia)
Jaka Produkcija (Croatia)
Hippocampe Productions (France)
Credits:
Director: Marko Šantić
Screenwriters: Marko Šantić, Goran Vojnović, Sara Hribar
DoP: Ivan Zadro
Editor: Vladimir Gojun
Composer: Jan Visocky
Production designer: Marco Juratovec
Costume Desiger: Tina Bonča
Make-up designer: Lija Ivančič
Cast: Jure Henigman, Živa Selan, Timon Šturbej, Nataša Brabar Gračner, jurij Drevenšek, Tamara Avguštin, Andrej Murenc, Blaž Setnikar, Benjamin Krnetić, Nebojša Pop Tasić, Jure Ivanušič, Alenka Kraigher, Vito Weis, Vid Klemenc, Andrijana Boškoška Batič
