The film A Short Summer, directed by Russian filmmaker Nastya Korkia and produced by the Serbian production company Art & Popcorn, will have its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in the competitive Giornate degli Autori (Authors’ Days) program, taking place from August 27 to September 6. The film, based on a screenplay by Nastya Korkia and Mikhail Bushkov, was shot in the vicinity of Belgrade, Bor, Perlez, and other locations during August and September 2024. It was realized as a co-production between Tam Tam (Germany), Totem (France), and Art & Popcorn (Serbia).

A Short Summer is a personal and intimate story of seven-year-old Katya, just before starting school, while her grandparents are on the verge of separation. In the background of this story lies an attempt to understand Russian society during the Second Chechen War and the terrorist attacks of 2004, through a poetic study of childhood.

Producer Miroslav Mogorović stated on the occasion of the premiere:
“I am especially proud that the Art & Popcorn Film Center continues to discover and support new young filmmakers, giving them space and support to develop their artistic voice. I believe that one of the most important roles of production is precisely that – to bring talent to the audience in a way worthy of its authenticity and strength. The competitive ‘Authors’ Days’ program in Venice is the best stage for this kind of encounter with the world. I am confident that A Short Summer, following its world premiere in Venice, will continue its festival journey worldwide and win the many awards it deserves.”

The leading role is played by Russian actress Maja Pleskovich, who lives in Belgrade, while the rest of the cast includes renowned Russian actor Aleksandr Feklistov, Yakov Karikhalin, Aleksandr Karpushin, as well as Serbian actors Vesna Jovanović and Stojša Oljačić. A significant part of the film crew consists of Russian emigrants, while Serbian artists such as costume designer Marija Janošević and makeup designer Jasmina Mina Lilić also contributed to the film.

Director Nastya Korkia said about the film:
“Inspired by my childhood, this story is about how I desperately and unsuccessfully tried to save my family from falling apart. How I tried to preserve at least the memory of happy times through ‘secrets’ – flowers hidden under pieces of glass buried in the ground. This is a story about childhood in the summer of 2004, reflecting Russian society at the start of the 21st century: the first two Putin terms, the war in Chechnya, and terrorist attacks – all things that now need to be rethought and reassessed from a different perspective.”

In the Authors’ Days program announcement in Venice, the film was described as:
“Another artist in exile also revisits and rethinks the past – Russian filmmaker Nastya Korkia, who currently lives in Germany. In A Short Summer, a story of a seemingly peaceful summer, war remains in the background, but the film shows how it can infiltrate every corner of life, changing close relationships and corroding even those that once seemed unbreakable.”

Nastya Korkia is a Russian-born filmmaker currently living in Germany. She graduated in Philology from Moscow State University and studied directing at the Moscow School of New Cinema under Bakur Bakuradze, as well as at EICTV in Cuba during Werner Herzog’s master workshop. She earned a Master’s degree in Documentary Filmmaking through the DocNomads Erasmus program, offered by a consortium of universities in Portugal, Hungary, and Belgium.

Her documentary GES-2 premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2021, while her previous films were screened at DOK Leipzig, True/False, Sheffield DocFest, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and other festivals. She has also directed and produced commercials for Google, TV Rain, and Roche, which were nominated for and won awards at Cannes Lions, Clio Awards, and The Webby Awards.

Before filming began, A Short Summer was presented on the When East Meets West platform at the Trieste Film Festival, where it won two awards and was selected for the PopUp Film Residency in Paris.

Numerous funds from Germany and France, MEDIA Creative Europe, the Film Center Serbia, and the Serbian Film Incentives Program supported the film A Short Summer. Producers are Natalia Drozd, Andrea Schütte, Dirk Decker, Berenice Vincent, Miroslav Mogorović, and Stefan Mladenović, who is also the film’s executive producer.

The official selection of the 22nd edition of Authors’ Days showcases world premieres of films from various contexts, geographical areas, and artistic sensibilities, all united by an urgent need to tell stories about the times we live in – marked by wars, identity conflicts, technological changes, and migrations – yet also filled with rebellion, desires, memories, and acts of love. The ten films in the competitive program form a political and emotional atlas connecting Lebanon and Greece, Italy and Mexico, Iran and Spain, futuristic Kenya, and Russia as remembered by those who left and never returned.

by Dragana Kostica
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