Milan (a co-production of Germany, Serbia, and Montenegro), Directed by Michael Kezele, won Bridging the Borders Award at the Palm Springs ShortFest International Film Festival and Market.
Jury members at this year’s event are actor Bill Pullman; Eileen Arandiga, Festival Director of the Worldwide Short Film Festival in Toronto; Dana Harris, editor Variety.com; Sydney Levine of Film Finders; and Dragan Milinkovic, Serbian film academic and producer.
Milan is about a day in the life of a family in the countryside near Belgrade during the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999. Ognjen, maybe 16, horses around with his younger brother, Milan, who’s about eight; they leave together, Ognjen to visit a friend and Milan to walk through the woods to buy beer for his parents.
Michaela Kezele was born in Munich in 1975. Her parents emigrated from the former Yugoslavia. She studied Music and graduated with a degree in Acting, before going on to study Direction at the University of Television and Film Munich. She graduated in 2006, and her thesis film was the acclaimed short film “Milan”.