YESTERDAY, TODAY, NOTHING

Feature fiction film (100 minutes), writed by Silvio Mirosnicenko, director Branko Istvancic
(Last working title: DO YOU THINK TO OZIJEK, DOROTHY?)

GENRE: A socially-tinged family melodrama with a love story. ONELINER: A poignant portrait of a family's struggle to deal with personal problems in the wake of democratic changes in a former socialist country.

SYNOPSIS: In the small town of Osijek, a poor mother and twenty-one year old son Nino are sending a package and letter to Nino's father who is in prison in Zagreb. They lie to him and tell him that they are still the wealthy owners of sportwear shop, since they are worried about Father's heart problems. On the same token, they are lying to eight year old Srečko as well by telling him that his father is working in a bank, since the boy is prone to suicide attempts after seeing a train run over his childhood love interest Ivana. Namely, as soon as anything upsets him, he walks along the railroad tracks with eyes closed and arms outstretched. Nino recieves a letter from his father. While reading it, he recalls his gentle and friendly relationship with his father from 1993 to 2000. His father introduces him to Mato's daughter Marina (she asks Nino to call her Dorothy after the character in The Wizard of Oz). Nino wants to marry her and go off to work on a boat until he becomes a captain. During their engagement party, the police arrive and arrest his father who does not want to tell that he illegally became the owner of the Orion company through a deal with the local politician Mato. Upon seeing the arrest, Mato calls off the engagement and sends his weeping daughter off to Italy for drug rehabilitation at a small commune. At the present time, Nino and his mother find out that Father has been concealing some of his dirty business dealings by saying that he was falsely accused. Little Srečko also discovers the truth from his schoolmates who tease him that his dad does not work in a bank but is rather in prison. They had to sell the sportswear store a long time ago to cover the debts to his business enemies who went after the family as soon as Father was put in prison. Mother, Nino and Srečko drive to Zagreb to confront Father with the truth. The climax of these unfolding events (Nino's narration, his reading and writing letters, his flashbacks) comes at the very end when Father becomes an invalid (he experiences a simultaneous heart attack and stroke, and is left paralyzed). Depressed, he commits suicide in prison. Upon hearing the news, Nino realizes that he will never be able to go sail the Danube and become a ship captain because he will have to look after Mother and Srečko. Therefore, he cuts the line holding his grandfathers floating holiday cottage and travels down the Drava River on it. Because he wants to get away from everything, he imagines that the cottage flies up and away into the sky.

PROJECT STATUS: We are planning to compete for the funds available from the Culture Ministry of the Republic of Croatia for feature films. We will also solicit several foreign funds that finance feature films from European countries.

More about director BRANKO ISTVANCIC...

www.istvancic.com