Director: Rajko Grlić
Scriptwriters: Ante Tomić and Rajko Grlić
Camera: Branko Linta
Editor: Andrija Zafranović
Original Music Score: Duke Bojadziev
Production Manager: Maja Vukić
Costume: Leo Kulaš
Make-Up Artist: Ana Bulajić Črček
Cast: Nebojša Glogovac, Dejan Aćimović, Ksenija Marinković
Producer: Ivan Maloča
Produced by: Interfilm, Zagreb; In Film, Prague; Revolution Production, Skopje; Sever & Sever, Ljubljana; HRT, Zagreb; Film & Music Entertainment Ltd, London;
NP7, Zagreb
World sales: Latido Films, Madrid
Four very different people live in the same building but avoid each other because of differences in how they live their lives, what they believe in, and where they come from. They would probably never exchange a word, but misfortune pushes them towards each other. Their lives entangle in ways that profoundly challenge deep-held beliefs and prejudices surrounding material status, sexual orientation, nationality and religion.
Slowly, and even painfully, they begin to open up to each other and recognize the essential humanity each of them possesses.
Awards
2th Forteca Internacional Film Festival, Perast, Montenegro, 2018
"Best Film"
"Special award: Nebojša Glogovac"
3th SEEFF 2018, Berlin, Germany, 2018
"Best Film"
"Best performer: Nebojša Glogovac"
7th BaNeFF, Stockholm, Sweden, 2018
"Best Film"
"Honorary Prize: Ksenija Marinković"
6th Tuzla Film Festival, Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2017
"Best film"
10th CinEast − Central and Eastern European Film Festival, Luxembourg, 2017
"Audience Award"
International Film Co-production Competition WaMa, Olsztyn, Poland, 2017
"Audience Award"
Croatian Feature Films Festival, Vinkovci, Croatia, 2017
Best film: "The Constitution"
25th Raindance Film Festival, London, Great Britain, 2017
Best film: "The Constitution"
Best script: Rajko Grlic & Ante Tomic
Best performer: Nebojša Glogovac
Oostende Film Festival, Oostende, Belgium, 2017
"Taste of Europe Competition – Winner"
3th Seanema Film Festival, Ulcinj, Monte Negro, 2017
"Best Feature Film"
52nd Niš Film Meetings, Niš, Serbia, 2017
"Grand Prix" - Nebojša Glogovac
64th Pula Film Festival, Pula, Croatia, 2017
"European Film Critic award Fedeora"
"Golden Arena for Best Screenplay" - Rajko Grlić and Ante Tomić
"Golden Arena for Best Actor" - Nebojša Glogovac
"Golden Arena for Best Supporting Actor" - Dejan Aćimović
"Golden Arena for Best DOP" - Branko Linta
Story Hall of Fame, Zagreb, Croatia, 2017
"Croatian film of the year"
12th SEEfest - South East European Film Festival, Los Angeles, USA, 2017
"Bridging the Borders Award - best film"
18th Film Festival Internazionale, Milano, Italy, 2017
"SNGCI Award - European Actor of the year" - Nebojša Glogovac
"The Audience Award"
14th Zinegoak Film Festival, Bilbao, Spain, 2017
"Diversity and Human Rights Award"
"Best supporting role" - Ksenija Marinkovic
31th Santa Barbara International Film Festival, USA, 2017
"Jeffrey C. Barbakow Award for Best International Feature Film"
9th LIFFE, Leskovac, Serbia, 2016
"Golden Hazelnut – best actress" - Ksenija Marinkovic
"Golden Hazelnut – best actor" - Nebojša Glogovac
19th Slovenian Film Festival, Portoroz, Slovenia, 2016
"Vesna – best Slovenian co-production"
"Vesna - best Costume Design" – Leo Kulas
40th World Film Festival, Montreal, Canada, 2016
"Grand Prize of the Americas (Best Film)"
Critical Response
A compelling film which recounts all our sorrows, senseless hates, ignorance and delusions through deeply intimate stories.
Novi List, Croatia
What subtlety and precision in the creation of this human drama, interwoven with just enough humor to have all the bitterness more easily swollen. How challenging it is to observe the unpretentious power of Grlić’s directing skills in flawlessly crafting his intentionally highly positioned aesthetic concept of this movie which escapes any kind of naïveté. This is a movie of elegant and deliberately simple directing which allows the intricate, deep and immaculately conceived story to get into
full swing.
Politika, Serbia
The Constitution is at the same time an apolitical and exceptionally political work of art which tells a story typical of Croatia and yet universal enough to reflect any society. That might be the exact quality which won the film the prestigious prize at Montreal Film Festival
RTV Slovenije, Slovenia
The most anticipated movie of the season – Rajko Grlić’s The Constitution – was premiered at CineStar multiplex in Branimir Centre in Zagreb last night. Such great interest for any national film has been unparalleled in the past decade, which is confirmed by the fact that three theatres were too small to seat over a thousand people who came to see this love story about hate.
Slobodna Dalmacija, Croatia
Can a film be a love story about hate? Yes. The paradox has been proved by Rajko Grlić who, joining knowledge and experience with Croatian writer and scriptwriter Ante Tomić, created a witty, socially conscious, courageous and above anything else up-to-date film –The Constitution.
Intermagazin, Serbia
The film premiered on 16th October and as of 20th October it entered cinemas throughout Serbia. After a week, the critics have called it one of the best films of the past decade. Nebojša Glogovac, as a transvestite, is said to be playing ‘the pivotal role of his career’.
Kulturni kišobran, Serbia
A masterpiece. Nebojša Glogovac is a superb leader of the magnificent cast in the new film of brilliant Rajko Grlić who skillfully entwines comedy and melodrama, touching upon some of the most painful and most controversial political and social issues which do not stop at Croatian state borders.
Blic, Serbia
In Belgrade, Rajko Grlić is probably the best beloved Zagreb director and Ante Tomić the best read Croatian writer. They have made a wonderful film which has received the best reviews ever in only a week of its screening.
UK Parobrod, Serbia
Tomić’s trademark slant towards the absurd and the bizarre, connected with Grlić’s intimate dramas which he has been creating since the eighties, resulted in probably the best Croatian film since the country’s independence.
Trusty, Croatia
Rajko Grlić’s The Constitutions upsets politicians, shakes up society, and thrills critics.
Delo, Slovenia
It is an undeniably courageous and important, possibly even healing movie, which will help us understand the others by understanding which sides of our identities we can chose and which we cannot. Once we grasp that, it will become easier to become a better citizen and act according to the document mentioned in the title.
Lupiga.com, Croatia
The directing and cinematography are superb, the acting is exceptionally credible, and the subtle humor of the movie reduces the bitterness caused by the situations and interpersonal relationships portrayed in it. The characters are complex, burdened with problems and their inherent contradictions, and yet magnificently shown.
Glas Koncila, Croatia
The movie Grlić has made is extremely important because it speaks up about the futility of political, social and general human intolerance and hate, which are becoming deeply rooted in Croatian society, and does that in a clear, comprehensible manner.
Novi List, Croatia
The best Grlić’s movie.
HRT, Croatia
A movie of a powerful plot, masterful directing and brilliant acting (if this was a Hollywood movie, Nebojša Glogovac would instantly become an Academy Award nominee, but hell, that’s a whole different story) which screams for your attention.
EZadar, Croatia
Director Rajko Grlić and scriptwriter Ante Tomić have carried out a filigree work to create a sturdy nest of philanthropy, in which they nurture hope that we are not completely and forever steeped in hatred; that eternal gardens of unspoiled sense can be planted in our Balkan backwaters. It is a movie which by far exceeds its artistic mission and turns into the Constitution in its own right. We should feel grateful to all of them who gave birth to this film which we will carry in our hearts
forever and which no one can take away from us. They have used their majestic, heroic skills to build a small yet enormous monument to kindness.
Civilka, Croatia
Rajko Grlić’s The Constitution premiered last night in the packed theatre at Cineplexx Ušće. Before the screening, the actors and authors walked the red carpet and greeted the audience eager to see Grlić’s love story about hate. Afterwards, director Rajko Grlić, scriptwriter Ante Tomić, producer Ivan Maloča, actors Nebojša Glogovac, Dejan Aćimović and Mladen Hren were greeted with long rounds of applause.
Story, Serbia
With sincerity and courage which do not aim at arousing shock among the audience, this painfully precise and not in the least pretentious movie is a real breath of fresh air in Balkan cinematography. It tackles the issues which have been dealt before, but does it in a brutally realistic and precise manner without caricaturing characters and their ideologies. The Constitution presents the hypocrisy of our present Balkan mentality, the relation between religion and nation, while analyzing
interpersonal relationships with great precision, focusing on the "little man" fighting for his existence.
Remix Press, Serbia
One of the best movies by Rajko Grlić.
Večernji list, Croatia
The premiere of The Constitution in Split, held in CineStar cinema, was greeted with long rounds of applause by the ecstatic audience.
Dalmatinski portal, Croatia
Whenever Rajko Grlić announces a new film as his last one, stating that he is tired, that he has reached the age when his peers keep departing day after day, that he cannot deal with producers, co-producers, finances and so on, he makes a movie better than the previous one. The Border Post was good, Just Between Us was very good, while The Constitution is the best among his "last films" and, in my opinion, equals his three masterpieces: You Love Only Once, Bravo Maestro, and In the Jaws of
Life.
Telegram, Croatia
Truly courageous movie, probably the most courageous Croatian movie of the new Millennium.
Slobodna Dalmacija, Croatia
After one week in release, The Constitution has been seen by 16.314 viewers, which is the third most successful opening of a Croatian film since Croatia became an independent state.
Jutarnji list, Croatia
Absurd but unpleasantly realistic.
Dnevnik, Slovenia
New film by Rajko Grlić, The Constitution, highly praised throughout the region, has opened numerous questions, primarily the question of man as a social being who is craving for love. And love is an endless story in which we meet in various ways. In Novi Sad, the film received standing ovations.
Korzo, Serbia
We sorely need movies like this because they send a message and tackle the issues which exceed cinematography and become educational and socially relevant. The Constitution will have you worried, it will move you but it will also make you laugh.
Kritika, Bosnia and Herzegovina
The Constitution is meticulously crafted, with simple and elegant camera work and compelling performances, especially by famous Serbian actor Nebojsa Glogovac as the lead; his stellar, nuanced performance (with great depth and acuity) of such a complex character, is hard to expect to be seen soon from aforementioned region. This immensely bold and brutally honest top-notch melodrama produced on a modest scale, which contains Grlic’s trademarks as dramatic conflict explored with
intense emotional investment, seasoned with a refined sense of humor, skillfully deals with once again increasing intolerance in Croatia, yet its intelligent, deeply profound and insightful multilayered texture goes far beyond local, addressing an urgent global problem. Grlic’s polished and subtle directing evokes the best pieces of Douglas Sirk or Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
Filmfestival.com
The Constitution is a whistleblowing film that touches on a series of social, political and ethnic issues still unresolved in the former Yugoslav territories. Addressing a delicate topic such as brutality towards minorities could have easily resulted in a mawkish film aimed at stirring the audience to tears, but writer-director Grlic has succeeded in portraying a slice of Croatian society without it resulting in a pedantic and didactic finished product.
Cineuropa.org
The Constitution is a movie which tells a love story about hate; a movie which does not leave you indifferent, but causes happiness and sadness at the same time.
Justforthisfeeling.wordpress.com
One must be genuinely kind and full of empathy, like the authors of The Constitution are, in order to manage to combine criticism with tenderness, pain with humor, realism with imagination, facts with transpositions, distress with reconciliation, confrontation with transcending, hate with love, and to do all of that without false sentiment, without calculations, but in a brave yet delicate manner. If the term ‘humanism’, in its essential innocence, were to be attached to anything, it would be
the film The Constitution. And anyone who needs a proof that art can achieve whatever political negotiations, thousands of conferences and seminars, analyses and a few syntheses cannot, should see The Constitution.
