12/09/2016 - Miloš Radović's tragic comedy has been selected ahead of A Good Wife and Humidity, among other titles

The Serbian Academy of Film Arts and Science (AFUN) has selected Miloš Radović's Train Driver's Diary [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Milos Radović
film profile] as the country's candidate for the Academy Award for Best Foreign-language Film.

In the local Oscars race, Radović's film beat four other submissions, including Nikola Ljuca's Berlinale title Humidity [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nikola Ljuca
film profile] and the Sundance entry A Good Wife [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], the directorial debut by actress Mirjana Karanović, who also stars in Train Driver's Diary.

The tragic comedy about a train driver – played by regional stalwart and also producer Lazar Ristovski, who is anxious about his first "kill", as members of this profession inadvertently kill 20 to 30 people on average in the course of their careers – world-premiered at the Moscow Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award. It also won the Young Audience Award at Sarajevo.

Train Driver's Diary was written and directed by Miloš Radović, who has returned to feature-film directing after a 12-year break. His 2004 comedy Falling into Paradise [+see also:
trailer
film profile], also featuring Ristovski, was a moderate hit in Serbian cinemas, and he is hoping for more success as his latest film goes on release on 14 September.

The film is a co-production between Ristovski's company, Zillion Film, and Croatia's Interfilm, and the two companies also co-produced the Croatian Oscar submission, On the Other Side [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Tihana Lazovic
interview: Zrinko Ogresta
film profile] by Zrinko Ogresta (read the news).