On 1 April, CPH:FORUM, the international financing and co-production event for creative documentaries, announced the winners of the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award. On this occasion, Biljana Tutorov and Petar Glomazić scooped the €20,000 cash prize with their new project, The Last Nomads, produced by Tutorov herself for Wake Up Films (Serbia), co-produced by France’s Les Films de l'œil sauvage and sold internationally by Syndicado Film Sales. Cineuropa caught up with Tutorov and Glomazić to talk through their new effort and the creative team’s next steps.

Cineuropa: What is The Last Nomads about? How would you describe your project and its main themes?
Biljana Tutorov: The Last Nomads is a story about a mountain that its inhabitants call ‘Mother.’ It’s a story set on the outskirts of Europe, in Montenegro, which many know only as a new tourist destination of stunning natural beauty. We focus on a mother and daughter, who belong to the ancient semi-nomadic tribes who live off herding, cheesemaking and foraging for medical plants. Their world turns upside down when the Government decides to set a military proving ground of hundreds of square kilometres in the middle of their land. Layers of the complexity of the mother-daughter relationship are revealing yet another intimate story that turns everything upside down once again.

When and how did you find your subjects, Gara and Nada?
BT: It was my co-author, Petar Glomazić, who discovered the Sinjajevina highlands and its inhabitants, a long time ago. As a filmmaker focused on strong and mature female characters embodying a political struggle of common people, I noticed Gara immediately, well before she became a heroine for Montenegrins who want true democracy and changes in their deeply corrupted society. The whole ex-Yugoslavian region is a tragic example of a failed transition in the post-war period, where democracy was technically misused for new dictatorships, more or less dissimulated and often accepted by the progressive international community. As filmmakers, we are trying to observe the complexity of this reality.

How are you planning to use the Eurimages prize?
PG: It won’t be hard to imagine how to use the award since we are in a very sensitive stage of development, and we need to upscale and sync the original idea of making a cinematic study of the semi-nomadic shepherd lifestyle – the working title dates from that early phase – to a much more ambitious, complex narrative structure exploring the dramatic potential of characters, set-ups, and the double storyline. In this respect, we are co-operating with several experienced filmmakers like the Austrian filmmaker Hubert Sauper and German producer Tobias Siebert, but also with our script advisor and editor, Belgium’s Marie-Helene Dozo. We need to do more paper work, but also to organise new research trips with our DOP to locations that are not so easy to access.

How would you evaluate, overall, your participation in CPH:FORUM?
BT: It was our first time in CPH:DOX and we were thrilled to discover an amazing city and its festival. We were inspired to present our film project in such a strong selection that was curated to resonate. We were nourished by all projects and stories we discovered. It’s interesting to see how our concerns are embodied in even stronger stories than ever. I feel that as documentarians we matured in dealing with humanity’s urgent preoccupations. Besides being a visionary and inspirational forum, it was a gathering of decision-makers supporting brave stories as well as film practice. We met all the people that are relevant to our project. It was very uplifting, since it got global visibility. The Eurimages Award made it even more ‘official.’

What is the next step for you now?
PG: Based on our research shootings, we are in the process of working with dramaturges and with our amazing editor on a new script and preparing for the shooting. In parallel, we are fundraising both in Europe – France and Belgium are our co-production countries securing creative contribution – and in North America, which has an independent support scheme and developed an understanding of filming with local and indigenous communities while securing the authors’ rights that stand for these communities.

Do you have any idea about when the project might be ready for release?
PG: Our calendar aims for a premiere in the first half of 2024. We decided to invest on a theatrical strategy and a strong creative production team. We hope to start with one of the major festivals.