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SMALL THINGS: A Story of Family, an Island, and the Unspoken

After its world premiere at the 73rd Pula Film Festival, SMALL THINGS by director Zvonimir Jurić will have its international premiere tonight as part of the Competition Programme – Narrative Feature Film.

The 80-minute Croatian-Slovenian-Serbian co-production brings an intimate family drama set on a small island, where one winter weekend brings long-suppressed relations, decisions, and family secrets to the surface. At a press conference at the National Theatre, the author and cast spoke about seven years of work on the film, the exploration of life on the island, and the human dimension of the story that particularly touched the audience in Pula.

The project received support from the Croatian Audiovisual Development Center in 2018, and production funds a year later. It was developed under the working title The Fourth King but over the years it has significantly deviated from the original idea.

The film was based on a short story, but the adaptation soon went in a different direction. As Jurić explained, only one motif remained from the original, while the rest of the world of the film was built through research and work on the script.

An important part of that work was getting to know the inhabitants of the small islands and their life during the winter, outside the tourist season. Their experiences helped Jurić shape the atmosphere and the characters, including Ivan, who lives with a mental disorder. Jurić tried to build his character so that he is not determined by the diagnosis but is shown as a complex person within the family.

The film takes place during a winter weekend, when the family gathers because of the father's decision to sell the family land. Sisters Anica and Irena come to the island, and Irena takes two children with her. Their brother Ivan, a silent recluse, also lives in a dilapidated family house with their father. The conversation about the sale of land thus turns into a confrontation with unresolved relationships and decisions that go beyond the fate of the family estate.

The cast includes Marija Škaričić as Anica, Izudin Bajrović as the father, Ivana Roščić as Irena, Juraj Lerotić as Ivan, and Bepina Baričević and Borna Mihovilović in the roles of the children.

Škaričić spoke about the preparation for the film and the importance of rehearsals that allowed the actors and director to change and develop scenes during the work.

Jurić revealed that he had imagined the role of the father for a specific actor from the beginning, while the rest of the cast was selected through auditions. He has been friends with Juraj Lerotić for a long time, which is why their work together was particularly close. The atmosphere on the set was another important element of working on the film. The actors and crew quickly bonded, and the sense of togetherness carried over to the filming itself.

SMALL THINGS was filmed on real locations in Zagreb, Neviđani on the island of Pašman, and Kosić on the island of Krk, and filming was completed on March 8, 2025. The costumes are specially made for the characters, in accordance with their personalities, to further contribute to the believability of the film's world.