ZAGREB: Tomislav Žaja's feature film for children and adults Little Gypsy Witch (Duh babe Ilonke, screenplay by Irena Krčelić) began shooting on 28 December 2010.

BUCHAREST: Writer/director Peter Kerek is developing his first feature film, 4 Blows/Patru lovituri, a fictional self-portrait told through four life-changing events in one man's life.

ISTANBUL: Scapegoat, a slapstick comedy expected to rival the success of the 2009 Turkish box office hit Recep Ivedik (4.5 million admissions), is completing postproduction. A $1 million production by Medya Muhendisi (www.medyamuhendisi.com), Scapegoat is based on a short video clip called ‘Gunah Kecisi' (Scapegoat) that first gained popularity three years ago, about an ex-porn star who wants to change his life and to become a business manager.

Branko Ivanda finished the last day of shooting on his feature film Lea and Darija on 12 December 2010. The film is a drama with biographical elements about two child film stars from Zagreb in the late 1930's, Lea Deutsch and Darija Gasteiger.

Jacek Bromski, one of the most popular Polish filmmakers goes back to crime genre with his new film Entanglement.

Czech director Jan Hrebejk is completing post-production on Innocence, a criminal psychdrama written by his longtime collaborator Petr Jarchovsky. Post-production is taking place in Prague. Slovak producer Rudolf Biermann of Infilm announced a January 20 release date.

Czech director Jiří Vejdělek, whose latest comedy Women in Temptation (produced by Falcon, www.falcon.cz) was the most successful Czech domestic movie of 2010 with over 1.2 million viewers, is completing preproduction on a new film. The dark comedy Men in Hope, called a "free sequel" to his recent film, starts shooting on 8 January 2011, Vejdělek announced on Monday.

BUCHAREST: Eva Pervolovici is in development with her first feature, Ileana, the story of a young and innocent girl who decides to infiltrate the ghetto in order to save her boyfriend by leading the police to another drug smuggler. She is helped in her adventure by a local guy who falls in love with her.

Polish director Andrzej Jakimowski is currently casting Flying Blind, his follow up to Tricks, in Germany, the UK and France for a spring shoot in Lisbon. The film is a co-production between KMBO (France), Filmes do Tejo (Portugal), ZAiR (Poland) and Film and Music Entertainment (UK).

When the Royal Film Commission of Jordan wanted to put Jordan on the map both as an international shooting location and to open a window of opportunity for local filmmakers they invited internationally known novelist and scriptwriter Mohydeen Quandour to Jordan. The result was the film Cherkess.

Director/writer Alex Rotaru is in development with his first feature film, The End of Rain, focusing on the culture clash and conflict between generations and inspired by his own experience as a Romanian imigrant in the United States. The film will be shot in English in the United States for 21 days in 2011.

Radu Gabrea (Gruber's Journey, The Beheaded Rooster) is currently in development with the long docu-drama The Last Days of Ceauşescu (planned for shooting starting February 2011) and is also developing a long feature based on the novel Lindenfeld by the Romanian writer Ioan T. Morar.

Prague-based Hungarian director Gyula Nemes is in preproduction with Zero, a mock-documentary stle "grotesque-anarchist drama" about the extinction of bees. The 1.8 million euro film is preparing for a mid-late 2011 shoot.

BUCHAREST: The Romanian filmmaker Radu Gabrea plans to begin preproduction in January 2011 on his long docu-drama The Last Days of Ceauşescu based on the script written by Grigore Cartianu, editor-in-chief at Adevărul daily and the author of the book The End of the Ceauşescus/Sfârşitul Ceauşeştilor.

BUCHAREST: Dragoş Iuga is in production with his first feature The Little Spartan/Micul spartan, a fantasy story told in mockumentary style for grown-up audiences and also for children, the director told FNE.

Film director and visual artist Lech Majewski is in production with Psie Pole (Dog Field). The film will be shot in the Silesia region through the end of November 2010. The 2.8 million PLN received 1 million PLN from the Polish Film Institute (www.pisf.pl).