Mirotvorac

In collaboration with the Festival of Alternatives and the Left – Fališ, the closing night at Barone Fortress will feature a screening of the winner of this year’s Pula Film Festival – Peacemaker, a widely acclaimed documentary directed by Ivan Ramljak and produced by the renowned Croatian documentary house Factum.

A special screening with free admission.

The Grand Golden Arena for Best Film was awarded to Peacemaker with the following jury statement:
A film that assembles a portrait from archival material of a man whose role in history has been largely overlooked, though it might have changed its course. In giving voice to this forgotten individual, Josip Reihl-Kir, the film speaks - with restraint yet great power – to the value of choices that rarely make headlines but reveal the deepest kind of humanity. A story of a man meant to be forgotten has become a film that cannot be forgotten.

In the summer of 1991, Josip Reihl-Kir – chief of police in Osijek and a staunch advocate of dialogue and conflict prevention – was assassinated at a roadblock near the village of Tenja. Peacemaker tells the story of the final months of his life on the eve of the bloody Croatian-Serbian war that Kir tried desperately to prevent. His story is reconstructed through the testimonies of close witnesses and rare archival footage from the time. More than thirty years later, many aspects of his murder remain unresolved, and the identity of those who may have ordered it – unknown.

Ivan Ramljak, one of the most significant Croatian documentarians of his generation (El Shatt – Blueprint for Utopia, 2023; Once Upon a Youth, 2020; Islands of Forgotten Cinemas, 2016), is known for his distinctive approach to history and memory.
The screenplay for Peacemaker was co-written by Ramljak, esteemed investigative journalist Drago Hedl, and Hrvoje Zovko, current president of the Croatian Journalists’ Association.

Following its premiere at ZagrebDox, the film was met with widespread critical praise. Domestic media described it as “a new documentary hit that captivates with its clarity, rare archival footage, and a pervasive sense of dread that lasts from beginning to end. The directing choices ensure the narrative flows like a river – clear, steady, and inevitable – with the beginning and end poetically mirroring each other like two sides of the same coin.” (Ravno do dna)