What's to Be Done? (Croatia; 2023; 79min; Croatian)
Director: Goran Dević
Željko heads the union at a rolling stock company. His deputy committed suicide after a large public protest. Željko is torn between the guilt he feels over his friend's death and the expectation of his fellow workers to lead a strike that could thwart the government’s plans to send the company into bankruptcy. This paradigm of Eastern Europe chronicles the workers who became losers in the transition; they helped dismantle communism, but failed to adapt to the ways of the new society. The film depicts fighters and workers, dreamers and revolutionaries, union leaders and trustees in bankruptcy. For a decade, while following the struggling of union members, the camera stands witness to a disappearing world of work.
Goran Dević
Goran Dević studied law, archaeology, and film art at the Academy of Dramatic Art, University of Zagreb, Croatia, where he currently teaches documentary film. His documentaries and fiction films have won awards in Pula, Cottbus, Prizren, Prague, Sarajevo, Oberhausen, Leipzig, Motovun, and Zagreb. His feature film debut, The Blacks, co-directed and written with Zvonimir Jurić, was critically acclaimed. Retrospectives of his documentaries have been featured at Arsenal Berlin, MAXXI Roma, Crossing Europe Film festival Linz, Beldocs, and Zagreb. He co-founded the production company, Petnaesta umjetnost.