Four Funerals and a Wedding

Four Funerals and a Wedding is a feature film about a Montenegrin funeral mourning artist and his daughter, who is trying to establish herself as a pop singer by participating in a TV talent show.

A father and daughter live in the remote countryside in Montenegro. Veselin is a teacher, widower, and a renowned mourning artist. His dramatic performances at funerals are juxtaposed with his 18-year-old daughter Svjetlana's singing and dancing videos, which she posts on social media. She successfully auditions for a talent show, where she meets one of the contestants, Barbara, who grew up in an immigrant family in Austria, but has returned to the region after a lot of trouble at home. The two of them will try out as a rap act and spend a happy summer together back in the countryside, while Veselin is up in the mountains with his goats. As the autumn approaches, the two young women drift apart, and Veselin’s illness draws Svjetlana closer to her father, who comes face to face with his own mortality.

A father and daughter live in the countryside near the town of Plužine, which was rebuilt in socialist times on a hill above the man-made Piva Lake after the old Plužine was artificially flooded to erect a dam. Veselin is a teacher, widower, and a renowned mourning artist (‘lelekač’). In his dreams, he communicates with people who are about to die. His brother Božidar, who lives in the city, is a conformist and works for a 'foreign company', providing loans to small businesses. As a result of Božidar’s dubious lending practices, a woman from their village dies. Veselin attends her funeral to deliver a touching lament. As seasons change, the funerals multiply - we witness his stirring farewell to a deceased colleague and a provocative send-off for the corrupt mayor of a local municipality. While in the mountains with his goats during the summer, he stumbles across a dump full of plastic waste and delivers a lyrical lament for the natural world. Svjetlana (artistic name: Stella) is 18 years old. She is passionate about singing and dancing, posting her efforts on her YouTube and Tik-Tok channels, but like her father Veselin, she spends a lot of time in solitude. Following a series of disagreements about her future at home, she successfully auditions for a talent show, where she befriends another contestant, Barbara, who grew up in a family of Montenegrin immigrants in Austria, but has returned to the region in an attempt to become famous and to 'find herself' after numerous conflicts with her parents and social milieu. Stella and Barbara will try out as a rap act - although not very successfully - and subsequently spend a happy summer together in the countryside. As the autumn approaches, the two young women drift apart, and Veselin’s illness draws Svjetlana closer to her father. In the end, we find Barbara in a 'reality TV’ program and Veselin in a dark dream in which he faces himself. Svjetlana is alone, sitting on a bench in a busy shopping mall.

Director's note:
This is a story about one world dying out and another coming in its place. The project deals with four central themes: death (specifically the cult of death in Montenegro), familial inter-generational and gender-related tensions, contemporary aspirational media culture, and the environmental crisis. Drawing on the rich ethnography of the region, my aim is to enable the world and the language of this film to grow organically from its peculiar and picturesque local setting. This approach also has a political dimension, as an attempt to provide a platform for the voice and vision ‘from below’, i.e. for the grassroots cultures and marginalised social groups. The originality of this film is based on the playful blend of various aspects of these 'folk' cultures with the language of 'arthouse' cinema in the form of an 'anthropological musical'. My unprejudiced love and affection for the main characters should be a guarantee that the audience will relate to them in a warm and emotional way.

Producer's note:
This is an intimate story about a father and daughter living in the remote Montenegrin countryside, a striking location rarely explored on screen. He is a funeral mourning artist, and she dreams of being a pop star. The depiction of local customs and popular cultural references will appeal to regional audiences, and we intend to make this film in a co-production between Serbia, North Macedonia and Croatia. We have a coproducer in Serbia, Stefan Mladenovic (Art & Popcorn) with whom we are already collaborating on the new film by Pavle Vučković, ''Frost''. We recently won an award for PriFest Best Pitch for audio post-production services (Audiohaus, North Macedonia), and we believe that this could be a strong starting point for finding a Macedonian partner. Regional television stations will also be approached, to facilitate the talent show segment of the film. Our film deals with some universal themes, such as generational conflict and ecological issues, but with a unique local flavour and in an emotional and humorous way. This should appeal to an international ‘arthouse’ audience. When it comes to European coproduction, our plan is to seek a partner across the Adriatic, in Italy. Some successful film industry connections have been established recently between Montenegro and Italy, but there are also some meaningful cultural links, including music and specific funeral customs. Eurimages will be the final stage of our financing strategy, and we intend to apply in 2024. Notably, we are not only looking for financial partners – collaboration with international talent is also vital to our production, particularly regarding film sound, which is of particular importance for our story.