Sceneggiatura / Screenplay: Ivana Mladenović, Adrian Schiop, Momir Milosević. Fotografia / Photography: Marius Panduru. Montaggio / Editing: Vanja Kovačević. Musica / Music: Toni Cutrone, Andrei Dinescu. Suono / Sound: Dejan Kragulj, Oriol Campi. Scenografia / Set Designer: Mălina Ionescu. Costumi / Costume Designer: Dana Păpăruz. Interpreti / Cast: Katia Pascariu, Cendana Trifan, Miodrag Mladenović, Arnold Kelsch, Cătălin Dordea, Adrian Radu. Produzione / Produced by: microFILM, Dunav 84. Coproduzione / Co- produced by: Nightswim, Boogaloo Films. Con il sostegno di / Supported by: Eurimages, Serbian Film Center, Serbian Ministry of Culture and Information, MiC-Direzione Generale Audiovisivo, Institut Català de les Empreses Culturals, Romanian Film Center. In associazione con / In association with: Conceptual Lab. In collaborazione con / In collaboration with: Romanian Public Television. Distribuzione internazionale / World Sales: B Rated International.
Stela, educated but unable to hold down a job, fell in love with a famous Balkan musician after seeing him on TV. This passion transformed into obsession is taking over her life and now she must meet him. One of the musician’s supposed mistresses, Vera, a starlet-musician, promises to help Stela meet her idol and, even more, to take her away from her poverty-stricken rural life. Their two worlds collide when Vera brings Stela to Bucharest, where she runs a company that sells sexual products and lubricants. After its premiere at Locarno in 2025, Sorella di clausura was then in competition at Sarajevo where it won the award for Best Director.
“Sorella di Clausura is based on real people, and it is a story about the game between reality and dreams. Although tragic at its core, inspired by the story of a singer and friend who lost her life prematurely, the film is primarily an empathetic parody of romantic melodramas. Set in the Balkan margins at the beginning of the 2008 economic crisis, the film explores how much magic and fiction a cutting-edge universe can take in. It plays on this ambiguity and suggests that there is no place for magic in this reality and that the only way to keep dreaming without being expelled from the universe is to go on dreaming, knowing that you’re dreaming. Otherwise, Sorella di Clausura is a bittersweet comedy of manners about people’s beliefs around sex in a country at the outskirts of the European Union. The film looks at the relation between sex and capital – or more specifically, whether sex can be a substitute for money, whether it can stop hunger or inflation.” (I. Mladenović)
Ivana Mladenović
Ivana Mladenović was born in 1984 in Kladovo, now Serbia. In 2010 she graduated in Film Directing at UNATC in Bucharest, where currently lives and works. Her feature debut Soldiers. Story from Ferentari had its world premiere at the Toronto IFF in 2017, was in competition at the San Sebastian IFF and then presented also at the Trieste FF, where was awarded Cineuropa Prize. Her second feature Ivana the Terrible, winner of a Special Jury Prize in the “Cineasti del presente” section of the Locarno FF, was also in competition at the Trieste FF in 2020.
filmografia scelta / selected filmography 2009 Afterparty cm / sf 2011 Skin cm / sf 2012 Lumea in patratele (Turn Off the Lights) doc.; Premi / Awards: Sarajevo FF – Miglior documentario / Best Documentary 2017 Soldații. Poveste din Ferentari (Soldiers. Story from Ferentari); Premi / Awards: Trieste FF – Premio Cineuropa / Cineuropa Prize 2019 Ivana cea Groaznică (Ivana the Terrible); Premi / Awards: Locarno FF, “Cineasti del presente” – Premio Speciale della giuria Cine+ / Cine+ Jury Award 2025 Sorella di clausura; Premi / Awards: Sarajevo FF – Miglior regia / Best Director
