Lunatic
Igor Šterk
A.A.C. Productions
A humorous but heart-breaking family drama with three main actors – father, mother and son – who represent three forces within their household, while the sailing boat represents the fourth.
A surprising and intimate portrait of Jure Šterk's family, the first Slovene, who single-handedly circumnavigated the world, as viewed from the personal perspective of his son. A humorous and uncompromising family drama with three main actors – father, mother and son – who represent three forces within their household, while the sailing boat represents the fourth. The father as the head of the family is omnipresent at home, even in his absence. With his repeated absence and risking his own life, he leaves a permanent and indelible mark on the household. There is a woman behind every successful man. Does anyone ever ask about the price she has to pay for that success? Is the fulfilment of a man's dreams more important than the fulfilment of those of a woman? Multi-layered, difficult, complex, never completely clarified or understood relations. Who is the good person in this story? And who the bad one? A lot is forgiven and forgotten, but this can sometimes be contentious, too.
Director’s biography: Igor Šterk / IMDb
IGOR ŠTERK was born in 1968 and graduated at Ljubljana Film Academy in early nineties. He stablished himself already with his first feature film EXPRESS, EXPRESS which trawled many international festivals and it was also sold to many territories. Up to date he has directed few documentaries and 5 feature films, some of them international coproduction with ZDF/ARTE and others. His last feature was a youth film COME ALONG that premiered at Cinekid in Amsterdam and became a bit of a cult hit in Slovenia. LUNATIC will be his sixth feature film.
Producer’s biography: Petra Vidmar / IMDb
PETRA VIDMAR was born in 1978 and achieved her film production professional training working in the industry since 2000 and through MBA Rhonda (2009) and EAVE (2007). Works she produced, line produced or coproduced have travelled the festivals (Rotterdam, Cannes, Venice, ect) and have been awarded many times over, have cumulated in to world sales and domestic highest grossing works. As a partner in production company GUSTAV FILM and procurator of A.A.C.productions, projects produced by her have stable and established production company foundation with vast network of film professionals.
Where are we at?
Total estimated budget: 1,268.205 €
Finances pending: 160.000 €
Financing in place: 1,108.205 €
Production timeline
Casting and pre-production in progress.
Start SHOOT by the end of 2021.
Film should be completed by the end of 2022.
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Brodcasters, Sales, Coproducers
Director’s statement
In his life, my father, Jure Šterk sailed the Atlantic many times, and in 94 became the first Slovene to single-handedly circumnavigated the world. In 2006 at age 70 he tried to set new world record: to single-handedly circumnavigate the world without a stop or assistance, and become the oldest person to do it. After more than one year of continuous sailing and more than 25.000 miles, he disappeared in Indian ocean. He was a public figure in Slovenia and international sailing. People respected, adored and were in awe of him. Nevertheless, all his triumphs are just the backdrop for a heart-breaking family drama, playing out in the shadow of his successes. I am his son and the director of this film, so this is in some respect an autobiographical story, which will have my approach to storytelling and my perception of the real-life events. Enough time has passed that I got a grip on the past, a grip on him and what drove him, my mother and it is brilliant to see us all as “characters”.
Producer’s statement
Out of all current projects, I am most excited about project LUNATIC. Excitement is of course out having a strong story, with a strong storyteller and seeing new potential for partnerships and expending our co-producing and distribution options. Lunatic is a film that speaks of a Slovenian family but it speaks about so much more. About love, loss and a special subculture that is the sailing world. Decision for having Cinelink as our first world market is of course because of known strong authors markets where most interesting and individual stories can be found. Igor Sterk is by all accounts of critics (foreign and domestic) one true director in the sense that all his films are different but all at the highest level of the artistic approach he takes on. With this being his life story – his ambitions for this film are that much clearer, but also brave. At the moment we have 87% of funding in place but we hope to obtain further interest for a project that goes in to production shortly.
Production company profile
A.A.C.productions, Ljubljana was established in 1993 by director Igor Šterk. Company produced all Igor Šterk’s 5 feature films (Express, express (1997), Ljubljana (2002), Tuning (2005), 9:06 (2009) and Come Along (2016)). These films travelled many festivals and were also awarded at domestic and foreign festivals.
Email: petra@gustavfilm.si