Flotel Europa

Feature-length documentary film
2015 / 71 minutes / DCP / 4:3 / Color / 5.1
Language: Serbo-Croatian, with English subtitles
Directed by: Vladimir Tomić / Produced by: Srđan Keča and Selma Jusufbegović / Edited by: Srđan Keča

"You could describe it as a 'found footage' film. Whether it's really their own archive is doubtful. You're not sure how much fiction is concealed in this story. It is composed of original footage from a refugee ship in Copenhagen harbour where refugees from the former Yugoslavia arrived in the 1990s. They filmed their daily lives and sent information on VHS tapes back to those remaining at home. But the coming-of-age story which is told via these images and the voiceover could equally well be fabricated. That's something each viewer must decide for themselves. That's where I think the excitement of the film originates: the material and commentary have been used in a creative, inventive way even if that means it makes it more of a work of fiction and no longer a true documentary. Which has always been a legitimate practice in pieces created from found footage." – Christoph Terhechte, Artistic Director of the 2015 Berlinale Forum

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"Far from a smooth and facile treatment, the fragile and deteriorating VHS material, at first glance, is discomfiting. When I saw the film at its premiere in Berlin, most of the audience members around me shifted uncomfortably in their seats, supposing that something had gone wrong with the digital projection since the first shots contain all the static and noise of pixelated videotape with its washed-out palettes and wobbly lines. But very quickly, we realised we were encountering something tactile, a thing of substance, that this layer of noise is what would bring the material to emotional life." – Pamela Cohn in Calvert Journal

About the Film

Synopsis

In 1992 a wave of refugees from the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina reached Denmark. With existing refugee camps completely full, the Red Cross pulled a giant ship into the canals of Copenhagen. The ship, Flotel Europa, became a temporary home for a thousand people waiting for decisions on their asylum applications. Among them was a 12 year old boy, Vladimir, who fled Sarajevo together with his mother and older brother. They spent two years in the limbo of Flotel Europa.

Two decades later, Vladimir Tomic takes us on a journey of growing up on this ship filled with echoes of the war — and other things that make up an adolescence. The coming-of-age story is juxtaposed with VHS archival material filmed by the refugees who shared the “space-time vacuum” of the Flotel.

Trailer

Festivals and Awards

  • Berlin Film Festival 2015 - Berlinale Forum - Tagesspiegel Jury Award

  • Berlin Film Festival 2015 - Peace Film Award Honorable Mention

  • Documenta Madrid 2015, Spain - Special Prize of the Jury

  • Torino Film Festival 2015, Torino, Italy - Interfedi Award Special Mention

  • CPH:DOX 2015, Copenhagen, Denmark

  • IDFA 2015, Amsterdam, The Netherlands - Best of Fests

  • Jihlava IDFF 2015, Czech Republic - Best Debut Documentary Film

  • Bratislava IFF 2015, Bratislava, Slovakia - Special Jury Mention

  • goEast 2015, Wiesbaden, Germany

  • Crossing Europe 2015, Linz, Austria - Best Documentary Film

  • Dok.Fest Munich 2015, Munich, Germany - Panorama Section

  • Dokumentarfilmwoche Hamburg 2015, Germany - Opening film

  • Dokufest 2015, Prizren, Kosovo - Best Balkan Documentary

  • Sarajevo Film Festival 2015, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina - Special Jury Mention

  • Beldocs IDFF, Belgrade, Serbia - Best Documentary in National Competition

  • Sheffield Doc/Fest 2016, Sheffield, UK

  • Göteborg International Film Festival 2015, Göteborg, Sweden

  • Tromsø International Film Festival 2015, Tromsø, Norway

  • Pancevo Film Festival 2015, Pancevo, Serbia - Best Film Award

  • Festival dei Popoli 2015, Florence, Italy

  • Watch Docs Human Rights Festival 2015, Warsaw, Poland

  • IndieLisboa 2016, Lisbon, Portugal - University Culturgest Award, Amnesty International Award

  • Tempo Documentary Festival 2016, Stockholm, Sweden - Honorable Mention of the Jury

  • Ankara IFF 2016, Ankara, Turkey

  • Zagreb Dox 2016, Zagreb, Croatia - Jury Special Mention

  • True False Film Fest 2016, Columbia, Missouri, USA

  • Thessaloniki Documentary Festival 2016, Athens, GR

  • Tromsø International Film Festival 2016, Tromsø, NO

  • Displaced Persons: Migration on Film, Anthology Film Archives 2016, New York, US

Press