Family Meals

Dana Budisavljević201249:25

Availability: Worldwide / Subtitles: Eng

Five years after they last gathered, a birthday celebration brings together an estranged Croatian middle-class family. Over a series of breakfasts and lunches, long-buried family secrets rise to the surface as they try to talk about the things that really matter to them. Over the course of the film, the family tackles their feelings about being raised as hippies, homosexuality, illness, war, cooking, and the mysterious Grandmother Poison. Budisavljević’s film delivers precise storytelling, rich in twists and turns, to paint a heartfelt portrait of a family facing the challenges of turbulent times, spiced with love, tears and a glass of wine.

Dana Budisavljević

Dana Budisavljević (Zagreb, 1975) is graduated film editor from the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb, co-founder and co-director of Hulahop, Croatian producing company that produces and distributes its own line-up and organizes Animafest. Her first feature film The Diary of Diana B. was awarded Golden Arena at the Pula Film Festival making her the first female director to receive main festival award since 1957. She made her directorial debut with the documentary Straight A’s (Factum, 2004), after which she went on to win wide acclaim with Family Meals (Hulahop, 2012), a documentary about coming out. She has produced the documentary series Slumbering Concrete, directed by Saša Ban, as well as films like I Like That Super Most the Best by Eva Kraljević and Then I See Tanja by Juraj Lerotić.

Production: Hulahop

Director: Dana Budisavljević

Sound Design: Gordan Fučkar, Dubravka Premar

Producer: Olinka Vištica, Sophie De Hijes

Screenplay: Dana Budisavljević

Music: Christian Biegai

Cinematography: Ana Opalić, Tamara Cesarec, Eva Kraljević

Editing: Marko Ferković, Dana Budisavljević

Festivals and awards:
2012. Special Mention in Regional Competition, Audience Award – ZagrebDox
2012. Best Balkan Newcomer Award – Dokufest Prizren