Australian Film About Croatian Immigrants Wins Top Award at Prestigious French Festival
Early february this year, in the French city of Clermont-Ferrand, one of the world’s largest short film festivals awarded its top honors. The Grand Prix went to the Australian film Unspoken—selected from an astonishing 173,000 submissions. While the film was directed by renowned Australian filmmaker Damian Walsh-Howling, everything else about this award-winning film revolves around Croatia.
The screenplay and production were handled by Australian-Croatian filmmakers Mariana Rudan and Kat Dominis, who also star in the film. The lead role is played by renowned Croatian actor Goran Grgić.
Unspoken provides a personal perspective on the well-known case of the “Croatian Six”, arrested in 1979 on accusations of planning bomb attacks across Sydney. The group was sentenced to 15 years in prison, but Australian courts are currently reviewing the case, as there is strong evidence suggesting that the charges were based on false accusations orchestrated by Yugoslavia’s notorious secret police, UDBA, which sought to portray Croatian immigrants as terrorists and extremists.
At MEETING G2.10, we had the honor of hosting Mariana Rudan, a former Australian journalist and TV presenter. In mid-November, during our conference in Zagreb, she gave several media interviews and also presented her film at the Faculty of Croatian Studies. A few days ago, she shared her excitement from France, stating that Croatians in Australia deserved this story to be told, as they have long been misunderstood and subjected to prejudice.
A huge congratulations to Mariana Rudan and the entire Unspoken team! We wish them many more awards and millions of viewers!
